A 48-year-old Philadelphia man basically raised his hand and said “take me to jail” as he’s now charged with 30 fraud related felonies connected to a stolen backpack from which he allegedly cashed checks totaling more than $3500.00.
Mark James Freeman Jr. was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Michael W. Gallagher for the 30 fraud related felonies. Judge Gallagher remanded him to Bucks County Correctional Facility as he was unable to post bond of 10 percent of $35,000.00
On Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025 at approximately 11:00 a.m., Bensalem Police responded to Police Headquarters regarding a fraud complaint.
According to the probable cause, the victim told police he had a backpack stolen on June 7, 2025 in Philadelphia and later discovered that his checkbook for his personal bank account at Santander Bank was inside the backpack. When the victim reviewed his banking history, he discovered that there were checks written and cashed that he didn’t authorize.
According to court records, on Nov. 21, 2025 the victim provided Bensalem investigators with ten Santander checks made payable to Freeman and deposited into a TD bank account:
Check 1581-$190.87 stamped Broad and Sansom, cashed 7/3/25 and made payable to Mark Freeman
Check 1567-$328.09 stamped Broad and Sansom, cashed 6/30/25 and made payable to Mark Freeman
Check 1561-$783.83 stamped Broad and Sansom, cashed 6/10/25 and made payable to Mark Freeman
Check 1579-$509.83, cashed 7/6/25 and made payable to Mark Freeman
Check 1570- $240.85, cashed 7/4/25 and made payable to Mark Freeman
Check 1578-$185, cashed 7/4/25 and made payable to Mark Freeman
Check 1562- $483.54, cashed 6/10/25 and made payable to Mark Freeman
Check 1574- $163.19 stamped 15 and JFK, cashed 7/1/25 and made payable to Mark Freeman
Check 1563-$190.80 stamped Rittenhouse Square, cashed 6/30/25 and made payable to Mark Freeman
Check 1566- $494.85 stamped Rittenhouse Square, cashed 6/30/25 and made payable to Mark Freeman
TOTAL VALUE: $3,570.84
The investigating detective received account information for the TD Bank account that fraudulently accepted the above deposits. The account was registered to Freeman.
The detective reviewed TD Bank’s surveillance footage, which all banks have, of the 10 deposits Freeman made and was able to positively identify the suspect as the person who deposited the fraudulent checks.
Freeman is scheduled to appear in court to answer to the charges of access device counterfeit, altered, incomplete (10), theft by deception (10), receiving stolen property (10) on March 31.