Five people were caught stealing numerous checks from various churches across Metro Detroit, along with having multiple debit cards under other people’s names and committing wire fraud.
In an affidavit submitted on Sept. 27, 2024, the five people were arrested and are facing at least four felony charges each in connection to stealing checks from churches in Livingston, Oakland and Wayne counties and a Metro Detroit funeral home.
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Who are the suspects?
- Delphine-Georgiana Epure (AKA Virginia Petru)
- Leonard Mihaiu (AKA Mihaiu Leonard)
- Bobi-Kevin Birzan
- Florin Birzan
- Marian Cretu
Details
On July 4, 2024, Marian Cretu and Bobi-Kevin Birzan stole at least two checks from a church in Plymouth Township.
Bobi-Kevin drove to the church in Cretu’s car and used a long tool with a sticky substance on the end to get mail from the locked church mailbox. Cretu was seen on surveillance video getting out of the passenger side of his car and walking to the mailbox while Bobi-Kevin was inside the car. Investigators later found an empty envelope meant to include a check near the church. The duo returned to the church mailbox at least ten times throughout July and August 2024 using Cretu’s car.
The checks Cretu and Bobi-Kevin stole on July 4 were later deposited into a bank at an FDIC-insured institution. The account was held under Cretu with a foreign passport and driver’s license using an address in Houston, Texas. Police found 13 other accounts at the same bank opened by foreign nationals using the same Houston address. Law enforcement said the identified checks written to at least 38 churches in the Metro Detroit area that were stolen were also deposited into accounts using the same Houston address.
ATM surveillance showed the deposits—including the check Bobi-Kevin and Cretu stole—were made by Delphine-Georgiana Epure and Leonard Mihaiu on multiple dates in July in Houston, Texas.
On Aug. 13, 2024, Bobi-Kevin and Cretu deposited a check at a financial institution in Farmington Hills. The check was written by a Jackson County resident and stolen from a funeral home in Eastern Michigan.
On Sept. 20, police placed a decoy gift card from a national retail chain inside a white envelope and into the local church in Plymouth Township. Surveillance video showed Epure leaning out of a car using a long tool to reach inside the mailbox to steal the gift card.
On Sept. 24, Epure and Mihaiu left the hotel where they stayed together in the Metro Detroit area and cashed the decoy gift card. This duo also went to several jewelry shops in Eastern Michigan to buy or tried to buy more than $10,000 worth of jewelry and gold bars.
On Sept. 27, 2024, police saw Florin Birzan with a minor driving the same car Epure was using through 16 church parking lots in Oakland and Livingston counties, stopping near the mailbox at each church. The same day, Epure and Mahiu went back to the Plymouth Township church and tried to steal a check from the mailbox. This time, the police stopped them and arrested them both. Inside their car were 11 checks totaling $21,546.11 written to numerous churches, $3,435 in cash, five debit cards in other people’s names, two money orders totaling $170 and six wire transfer receipts.
What felony charges each suspect faces
- Bank Fraud
- Conspiracy to Commit Bank Fraud and Wire Fraud
- Wire Fraud
- Possession of Stolen Mail
