Homeless Manchester Man Arrested On Forgery, Evidence, Attempted Theft Charges In Concord

CONCORD, NH — Quick-thinking bank employees on the Concord Heights helped capture a suspect accused of stealing $13,000 from a Henniker trucking company on Thursday.

Around 5:45 p.m., officers were sent to the Sugar River Bank on Loudon Road for a fraud report involving a Hispanic man who matched the description of a suspect stealing money from a business account with forged checks. The suspect fled the bank, but officers arrived and were able to find and detain the suspect, Ryan Quiroga, 31, a homeless man now located in Manchester.

The reporting officer went to speak with a bank employee and the victim in the case.

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According to the bank employee, at the Warner branch earlier that day, the suspect was accused of cashing a check for $2,815.70. The suspect was then accused of then driving to New London and cashing another check for $2,931.80. At the Sunapee branch, the suspect attempted to cash a check for $3,416.90, but the clerk there told the Concord employee something was “off” about the transaction, so they started to stall, an affidavit said.

After the manager of the Sunapee branch approached the suspect, he leaned over the counter, grabbed his New Hampshire driver’s license and the check, and left, the report stated.

The suspect was accused of going to the Newport branch and getting cash there and then to the Grantham branch, where he cashed another check and left the bank with $3,526.10, the report said.

Meanwhile, the Sunapee manager informed the account owner, a trucking company out of Henniker, that they were missing checks that were being cashed. A co-owner then called the Concord branch to inform them about the fraud, the report stated. The Concord manager then emailed all the branches to put them on alert. An employee in Warner also sent a security camera photo of the suspect.

The officer wrote the co-owner then went to Concord to follow up and file a fraud report. While there, the suspect entered the branch to cash a check for $3,714.80, the report stated, but later fled.

After the arrest, the officer eyed the check, which appeared to have been signed by the co-owner, but “the name is not legible,” the report said. The officer confirmed later the signature “was consistent” with the co-owner but it was not their signature. The check, too, had “Sugar River Bank” imprinted on it. The officer wrote that the co-owner did not know Quiroga.

The co-owner told the officer the only difference between the forged check and the company’s actual checks was a missing security QR code. The security code was “mainly black,” whereas the actual checks were “distinctly different in design,” the officer wrote.

Police matched Quiroga to the Warner security photo, the Concord security video, and his driver’s license, which “appeared to be authentic,” the affidavit said. Quiroga was arrested and charged with felony attempted theft by deception. He was taken to police headquarters and processed but did not have the check, the reporting officer noted.

Officers also canvassed Quiroga’s suspected fleeing path and found what appeared to be a check dropped below a sewer grate near 234 Loudon Road. Concord firefighters were requested, and they lifted the grate and retrieved the item, which was the check.

Quiroga was then charged with felony falsifying physical evidence.

The reporting officer then spoke to one of the officers who questioned Quiroga while being held on Loudon Road, about 100 feet from the sewer grate. That officer accused him of questioning what was happening and why he was being held. When told he matched the description of a fraud suspect at the bank, Quiroga said, “I don’t understand what the big deal is … I just got off work and went to go cash a check,” the affidavit stated.

A felony forgery charge was also added.

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