EDGEWOOD — Police say a questioning bank teller, an alert off-duty officer and dogged police work have uncovered a multistate counterfeit-check ring.

        Investigators confiscated nearly 50 counterfeit checks in a scheme to defraud a Boca Raton, Fla., car-rental company of more than $63,000, Edgewood Police Chief Steve Vollmar said.

        The scheme began to unravel, Chief Vollmar said, when Latonya Holt, 23, of Nashville tried to cash a counterfeit check Friday morning at the Huntington Bank in Edgewood. A bank teller recognized the suspicious check and called police.

        Officers confiscated two counterfeit checks, a fake birth certificate, a fake Ohio identification card and a small container of marijuana, according to court records.

        An Edgewood police report said Ms. Holt “had been to numerous banks cashing or attempting to cash similar counterfeit checks.” Chief Vollmar said Ms. Holt claimed the checks were for work she did for the Florida car-rental company.

        Ms. Holt was being held in the Kenton County jail, charged with four counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument and possession of marijuana.

        As authorities questioned Ms. Holt inside the bank, police said, an officer noticed that a man who had driven Ms. Holt to the bank was leaving her behind. An Erlanger police officer, inside the bank on personal business, followed the man.

        Police stopped Kenneth Deangelo Thomas, 24, of Nashville on Dixie Highway in Erlanger, across from Silver Lake Shopping Center. When questioned, police said, Mr. Thomas used an alias and showed officers a fake identification card and fake Social Security card.

        He later asked to use a restroom inside a nearby fitness center, where, police later said, he threw away Ms. Holt's purse.

        With no reason to charge Mr. Thomas at first, police let the Nashville man go. Police said the purse contained more than 45 counterfeit checks. A Crestview Hills/Lakeside Park police officer then found Mr. Thomas at a grocery store across the street from the fitness center.

        Mr. Thomas was then charged with tampering with physical evidence and three counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument.

        He is being held at the Kenton County Detention Center.

        Mr. Thomas, a convicted felon, is wanted by federal authorities in Nashville for possession of a firearm in an unrelated incident.

        Also arrested was Jarvas Leronte Burns, a passenger in the car.

        Mr. Burns, 23, of Franklin, Tenn., is charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument. He is free on $2,500 cash bail.

        Two other passengers in the car, Mr. Thomas' wife and infant daughter, were not arrested.

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