West Des Moines Police Arrest Alleged Forger, Possibly Thwart Pharmacy Holdup

A clerk at Dahl’s Foods, 5003 E.P. True Parkway, recognized the name on a check as that of a Bondurant forgery suspect who had tried to have a store employee help him forge checks, according to a West Des Moines police report. 

The suspect, Joshua Robert Wilson, 21, of Bondurant reportedly gave his friend, James Dillon Wicker, 21, of Des Moines, his identification and asked him to cash the check for him. Both men were arrested on forgery charges.

But their legal problems were just beginning.

While searching Wicker during the arrest, police found a folded piece of paper with the following message:

“Take two steps back. I have a gun. Give me your Hydromorphone (8mg) Dilaudid 8 (mg) quietly.”

Wicker reportedly said Wilson had written the note earlier in the day when the two were talking about a string of pharmacy robberies across the Des Moines area in which the suspect claimed to have a gun in a note demanding drugs. In December, a suspect in those cases was arrested.

Wicker said Wilson was “really obsessed” with the idea of robbing a pharmacy by passing a note claiming to have a gun, according to the police report. Wicker said he wouldn’t take part, but Wilson reportedly said that he would consider it “if the situation was right and he was ‘fiending’ hard enough that he would.”

Wilson reportedly said it would be an easy heist to pull off, grabbed a notebook from the table and scrawled the message on the paper that police later found folded in Wicker’s pocket. Wicker claimed he didn’t want his roommate to see the message, so he ripped the page out of the notebook before he and Wilson left Wicker’s apartment.

The browser on Wilson’s cell phone reportedly opened to a search for Medicap pharmacy locations in the Des Moines area and showed he had viewed numerous sites turned up in a search for pharmacy robberies in which notes were used to demand drugs.

When police searched Wilson’s car, they found a duffel bag containing what appeared to be forged checks and “numerous hats, gloves and shirts inside the vehicle … that could be used to disguise your appearance,” Officer Chris Morgan wrote in his report.

Also seized were drug paraphernalia, including several syringes and a spoon with a melted mass that Wilson reportedly identified as Dilaudid, a powerful opiate.

When told police found the drug paraphernalia in his vehicle, Wilson “acted surprised at first, then stated … the paraphernalia was his, but it was old,” according to Morgan’s report.

Wilson also reportedly said that the checks police recovered were associated with “things he was already charged for.” According to Iowa Courts Online, Wilson has a lengthy record of forgery and theft charges.

In his report, Morgan said both men admitted to being drug users, but only Wilson faces drug charges. He remained in the Polk County Jail $5,300 bond as of Wednesday evening.

Wicker posted bond at the West Des Moines Jail the night of his arrest.