Crime & Safety

Police Arrest Man for Forging Prescriptions

Libertyville man tries to obtain prescription drugs from Walgreens with forged prescription.

A Libertyville man was arrested May 29 on three felony counts of forgery for attempting to purchase 90 prescription Ritalin pills from the Walgreens store in downtown Deerfield, .

Harold Cline, 53, of Libertyville, was charged with three Class 3 felonies for forgery according to the report. The penalty for those offenses is one to three years in prison.

Cline handed a prescription that appeared forged to a pharmacy technician on May 28, according to the report. The technician alerted police explaining to the officer how it was altered saying the doctor “doesn’t sign his name like that.”

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Police reviewed footage from Walgreens surveillance photos and returned to the store May 29. A Walgreens employee was able to identify Cline’s photograph out of six presented in a photo lineup, according to the report. Police were also able to determine the type of vehicle Cline was driving and make a partial identification of his license plate.

Police spotted the vehicle in the northwest corner of the Walgreens parking lot and alerted all officers on patrol to make an investigatory stop, according to the report. After Cline drove out of the lot at 6:30 p.m., he was stopped and arrested. Police found 25 altered forged photocopies of prescriptions in Cline’s vehicle with various names on them.

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On May 30, Cline appeared in Lake County Criminal Court where Judge Raymond Collins set bail at $25,000, according to a spokesperson for the Lake County Sheriff’s office. Two days later, Collins reduced the amount to $5,000.

Cline posted the $500 cash portion of his bail on June 4 and was released. He next appears in court June 12.

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