Man Found on Golf Course with Xanax, Police Say

Written by Jack Tobias

A 40-year-old Bethlehem Township man suspected of forging and cashing two of his father’s checks last week was allegedly found on the golf course of Northampton Country Club with two dozen anti-anxiety pills.

Court records say Raymond Edward Ostrander Jr., of 3853 Chipman Road, was spotted at a golf course water station near Bethman Road in the township.

In the area where Ostrander was found, police discovered a plastic baggie with 24 pills of Alpraxolam, also known as Xanax. The dosage of each pill was 2 mg, the records say.

After he was taken to police headquarters Thursday, he admitted to forging and cashing two of his father’s checks last week, the records say.

Ostrander cashed a forged $250 check June 14 and a forged $200 check June 15 – both at Lafayette Ambassador Bank, 4001 William Penn Highway, Palmer Township, the records say.

On June 13, Ostrander told his father that he had just gotten a job fixing trailers in Ocean City, N.J., according to the records.

Bethlehem Township Patrolman Shaun Powell, who filed a criminal complaint for the golf course incident, said he was dispatched to the 3700 block of Tiffany Dirve shortly before noon Thursday on a report of a suspicious person who left on a bicycle.

About 10 minutes later, Powell spotted the person at the golf course water station. Ostrander told Powell he lives with his father and stepmother at the Chipman Road address.

The stepmother, meanwhile, later told police that Ostrander hasn’t lived there for more than 30 days.

Police found the Xanax pills on the ground in the plastic baggie, the complaint says.

A separate complaint, written by township Patrolman Anthony Stevens, was filed in the checks case.

According to that complaint:

--Ostrander’s father told township Officer Stephen Malitzki on Monday (June 17) about what the complaint calls the “stolen checks.”

--The father said his son came to him on June 13 asking for $250 for “a week’s worth of living” in Ocean City because he had just gotten a job there fixing trailers. The father agreed to give his son the $250, and asked him to get the father’s checkbook in a computer room.

--The son returned with the checkbook, the father made out the check and gave it to his son. Later that day, the son left and the father said he had not seen him since.

--That night, the father looked at his account on the computer and saw another $250 check – one with a different number than the one he had given his son – had been cashed and that the signature was not the father’s.

--On Tuesday (June 18), police learned from the father that yet another of the father’s checks – this one for $200 – had been signed and cashed without the father’s permission.

--On Thursday, Stevens spoke to Ostrander after he had been taken into custody at the golf course. The suspect admitted to forging and cashing the two checks.

In the golf course incident, Ostrander was charged with possession of a controlled substance. In the checks case, he was charged with two counts of forgery – both level-two felonies – and one count each of theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property.

He was arraigned by District Judge Joseph Barner of Lower Nazareth Township and committed to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $1,500 bail in the golf course incident and $5,000 bail in the checks case.