Cesar Mendoza Mora (Kewaunee Co. Jail)
KEWAUNEE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Cesar Mendoza Mora, a suspect in a multi-county theft ring, pleaded not guilty Friday.
Mora, 27, is charged with receiving stolen property. He’s accused of buying thousands of dollars in car and truck tires were paid for using a fraudulent or stolen credit card.
No trial date was set. He returns to court Nov. 21 for a pre-trial conference, court records show.
According to the criminal complaint, Mendoza Mora, using the name “Michael Donovan,” purchased multiple sets of car and and truck tires from Bob’s Auto Parts and Jorn’s Chevrolet, in Kewaunee. He paid for the tires over the phone, using what was believed to be a fraudulent credit card, before picking up the purchase almost immediately. Days later the credit card purchases would be rejected, but the materials were no longer in the store.
“It’s unfortunate, but sometimes those transactions don’t go through immediately. So that’s just the nature of the process,” Kewaunee County Sheriff Matt Joski said when the case was charged. “And it’s a good message, I think, to businesses, to individuals, when you are doing transactions, make sure that the transaction goes through its entirety before you hand over anything.”
Through investigative work, Kewaunee County detectives were able to identify Mendoza Mora as their suspect.
While the initial charge has been filed against him in Kewaunee County, the sheriff says this case if far from over.
“This is continuing to unravel because it takes time to dig through the records, to find out how deep this goes, and again, to see if there’s something more organized, that there’s more levels of this that we need to work through,” Joski said.
The Kewaunee County criminal complaint lists Ashwaubenon, Green Bay, Little Chute, Luxemburg, and Two Rivers as other communities looking into the same type of crime with the same motive. Again, the thief used the name “Michael Donovan.”
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