A 25-year-old Kennewick woman was arrested after allegedly cashing a counterfeit check that was made to look like it was from the Benton County jail.

Kennewick police began investigating the counterfeit check scam after the check was returned to a Kennewick grocery store as being not valid, said Mike Blatman, police spokesman.

Chelsea Lynn Johnson is accused of cashing a $412.42 check at the Red Apple Market that supposedly was from the Benton County Corrections Inmate Trust Fund, Blatman said.

The check was made on legitimate check paper that can be bought at office supplies stores, he said. Typically, legitimate business names are used on checks, but thieves will create false accounts or print the account numbers that are a single digit off.

The checks appear legitimate and get cashed, but then they get returned as being not valid a few days later, Blatman said.

In this case, the wrong bank information was on the checks, but there's no way to know, he said.

"Part of the problem is that they're not easily detected ... but what usually happens is there usually will be something wrong with the check," Blatman said.

Misspelled words also is common, but that's also difficult to spot, he said.

Johnson reportedly cashed the bad check Jan. 23. A second suspect cashed the exact same check two days later.

When the checks were returned, police were contacted and officers were able to track Johnson down because of her driver's license information on the check, Blatman said.

The second suspect wrote down a driver's license number that is not valid, so officers haven't identified that suspect yet, he said.

Investigators searched an apartment at 102 E. 14th Ave. on Thursday, seizing some drugs, Blatman said. They also found evidence of other people's identities and indications that counterfeit checks were being made there, he said.

Johnson was booked into the Benton County jail on suspicion of forgery and second-degree identity theft.