The suspect, Carmela Evett Bolden, 52, of Elmsford, New York, is charged with 34 counts of theft of $1,000 to $10,000 and one count of theft scheme of $10,000 to $100,000. The charges stem from a complaint filed on Dec. 7, 2016 to the Maryland State Police Criminal Enforcement Division from members of the Greater New Hope Church and Ministries in Preston, Maryland.
The state police investigation determined the church paid Bolden, who owns the travel agency R U Ready To Travel, a total of $34,859, which was divided into monthly installments between December 2015 and September 2016. The money, which was sent each month by a certified check, was supposed to go toward a couples cruise with Norwegian Cruise Lines. In all, 17 couples (34 church members) paid Bolden to book the cruise.
Bolden sent an email to a church representative on Aug. 28, 2016 notifying them that she had received the final payment. An examination of Bolden’s and the church’s bank records showed that Bolden had cashed the checks. Bolden told the church representative that there was a problem with their prior reservations and she booked new reservations.
An examination of Norwegian Cruise Lines showed that payments made to Bolden had not been paid toward the reservations. Norwegian Cruise Lines had canceled those reservations due to not receiving any payments toward the cruise. There were also no payments made toward the new reservations booked by Bolden.
The church group contacted Norwegian Cruise Lines directly and booked the trip themselves by paying for it with other church funds and personal money from the pastor himself. An arrest warrant was issued for Bolden on June 20, 2017. Upon her arrest July 6 by Westchester County Police in New York, Bolden was extradited back to Maryland, where she appeared July 13 for her initial appearance before the Caroline County District Court commissioner.
Bolden was released after posting $5,000 bond. A preliminary hearing is set for Aug. 10 in Caroline County District Court.
R U Ready To Travel has several prior complaints filed against the company through the Better Business Bureau. Anyone who may have a similar incident to report involving R U Ready To Travel is asked to contact their local state police barrack. A list of the individual barracks can be found on the Maryland State Police website at http://mdsp.maryland.gov.
3 comments:
All her assets should be taken and repaid to the church. People like this really piss me off, but have also learned to deal directly with the cruise line or where ever you are traveling and bypass travel agencies.
Joe I just saw this on Coastal Cabinetry's Facebook Page. Apparently this just happened last Friday. Apparently 23 break-ins reported to the Salisbury Police Department on Friday night. But there's no crime in Salisbury. I'm going to keep an eye on this post because I am waiting for Jake Day to give them Hell when he sees this on Facebook.
Coastal Cabinetry with 9 others.
July 30 at 8:50am ·
Friday night I was a victim of one of 23 car break-ins reported to the Salisbury Police in the Harbor Point, Sleepy Hollow and Cross Creek communities. The thieves got away with my office laptop which contains my entire business. Don't even care about the laptop. The information on it is priceless. Any info would help!
George Bresler said... Is it an apple?
Coastal Cabinetry said... No. HP
Chad Dailey said... That sucks!! I'm just wondering when Salisbury Police Dept, Sheriffs Office and MSP is going to form a special task force and sit in our neighborhood and catch these thieves!! It's easy picking and no one is doing anything about.
They hit our neighborhoods on a regular basis.
Brenda Lee said... So sorry Josh. Uncle Allrn said do u have backup.
Honestly I think the entire world has gone mad.
Josh Schleupner said... It wasn't mine, it was a friends computer.
Coastal Cabinetry said... I have backup, but evident storage space full and nothing recent was saved.
Josh Schleupner said... That kind of stuff really gets under my sink. It's not the materialistic stuff, it's the irreplaceable things that they get that pisses you off. You can go to the FB page yourself to see the comments.
Kristin Langdon replied · 1 Reply
Alexis McKenzie said... This happened to us and Roman's backpack with all of his favorite things as well as school books and work were stolen. Several cars in driveways in Olde Towne were robbed, but luckily a few homes had video cameras and arrests were made. We didn't recover any of our items, but now we know never to leave anything in the car overnight. Terrible!! I'm sorry.
Linda LeVee said... Why would you leave your laptop in your car?
Bryan Fykes said... They got mine back in April. Company laptop as well. But the worst part was my backpack and head phones that in has had for years and were my favorites. They probably ended up in a dumpster.
Bonded out with 5k of stolen money. Typical Maryland. Should have waited until she posted bond then seized the money for possible evidence.
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