LYNNWOOD — It is commonplace for thieves to blame their criminal activities on drug addiction.

They’re so desperate for another fix that they steal the neighbor’s mail or break into grandma’s house, grabbing the good silver on the way out.

Sheriff’s detectives recently ran into a different kind of thief. The man, 21, is suspected of forging stolen checks. He’s a suspect in numerous cases in Snohomish and King counties.

He says he’s not a drug addict.

He claims he’s stealing to prove a point — to his parents.

Detectives caught up with the man while investigating some checks that had been stolen from a couple’s mailbox. The bank stopped payment on one check before it was cashed. The second, totaling $525 and change, was cashed at a Money Tree in Lynnwood.

The check had been altered, written out to the suspect.

A portion of the check went to the business as a fee. The rest of the money went into the man’s pocket.

Detectives tracked down the man. He told them that his girlfriend’s brother had given him the check and encouraged him to forge his name and cash it.

Trying to get to the bottom of the man’s motivation, the detective asked the man if he was stealing to feed a drug habit.

The man’s response: “I don’t have an addiction. I don’t need to use drugs. I am doing this to show my parents that I can make it on my own, without them.”

Maybe his parents will visit him in jail.

Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.