A Tennessee man is behind bars at the Catoosa County jail on charges of forgery and theft after he reportedly purchased vehicles with fraudulent checks from the Ringgold Chrysler Dodge Jeep dealership in late 2010.

According to the Ringgold Police Department:

William Joseph Timms, 43, of North Highland Street in Jackson, Tenn., was arrested Wednesday, Feb. 15, on charges of first- and second-degree forgery and two counts of theft by deception. He is also being held for law en-forcement agencies in Missouri, Ohio, and Indiana.

Timms’ arrest came 16 months after he allegedly entered the Ringgold Chrysler Dodge Jeep dealership on Nash-ville Street and purchased a Dodge Ram truck and a Dodge Challenger with a bad check, then proceeded to send the dealership two more bad checks after employees informed him that the initial payment was not sufficient, re-ports show.

On Oct. 14, 2010, Timms entered the dealership with an unknown woman claiming that he was attempting to pur-chase the two vehicles for the woman and that he wanted them put in her name, reports show.

“After completing the appropriate paperwork, Timms gave the dealership a check in the amount of $65, 470 for the two vehicles, and took the Dodge truck as well as the keys to the Dodge Challenger,” detective Patrick Mason wrote in the report. “Timms and the woman then left the dealership in the Dodge truck. Soon after, it was discov-ered that the check given at the time of purchase was not valid.”

After dealership employees contacted Timms, he sent two additional checks in the amount of $66,000 in attempt to cover the first insufficient check. Both of the new checks also turned out to be invalid, at which time the dealer-ship contacted Ringgold police, reports show.

During the investigation, contact was made with a woman who Timms had purchased the truck for. The woman was advised of the circumstances regarding the vehicle, and immediately cooperated with police in getting the ve-hicle returned to the dealership.

The woman and her friends, who were acquaintances of Timms’, were then questioned about Timms and the ve-hicles, reports show.

The woman told police she met Timms in Indianapolis, approximately a month prior to the purchase of the vehi-cles and that he told her that he owned his own trucking company.

“She stated that approximately a month after their meeting, Timms offered to buy her many items, including the vehicles from the dealership,” Mason said. “After speaking with the woman and her friends at length, it seemed to me that they had been taken in by Mr. Timms’ charm and by the promise of expensive gifts. During conversations, I also learned that Timms attempted to purchase a motorcycle from Mountain Creek Harley-Davidson in Dalton, Ga., with an additional fraudulent check.”

The investigation also revealed that Timms has compiled a history of presenting fraudulent checks for expen-sive vehicles at various locations throughout several different states, and has active warrants through those juris-dictions in the states of Missouri, Ohio, and Indiana.

Warrants for Timms arrest were obtained through the Catoosa County magistrate’s office on Oct. 15, 2010, for the charges stemming from the Ringgold dealership case.

Those warrants were served on Timms on Feb. 15, 2012, after he was apprehended in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

Timms was picked up by Catoosa County sheriff’s deputies and extradited to Catoosa County jail without inci-dent.