She said she closed her checking account and opened a new one. Altman said she alerted her bank, Stockyards Bank, which covered her loss. With the handwritten ink erased, criminals write in higher dollar amounts on the same checks and make them out to themselves or others involved in their crimes. "Immediately, we knew something was wrong."įor decades, thieves have used easily accessible chemicals to 'wash' ink off checkswithout damaging the checks. "We saw on our account that it had been written to someone we'd never heard of and the amount changed from say $100 to $11,000," she said. Altman said she put the $100 check in an outdoor blue mailbox in Hyde Park and assumed it would arrive safely. "We found out in January that a local check we had written never arrived," Hamilton County resident Ann Altman said. In addition to Norwood, postal workers have been robbed at gunpoint in Columbus, Cleveland and many other cities across the country, according to news reports. In some cases, a huge increase of reported mail thefts follows the robbery of a postal worker's mailbox key. Postal Service reported that complaints about mail theft increased 161% from March 2020 through February 2021. The WCPO 9 I-Team has spent weeks investigating local mail theft, how thieves are getting easy access to the mail, and what you can do to protect yourself from becoming a victim.Ī May 2021 report by the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. "Try to avoid all blue mailboxes inside Hamilton County," Burke warned. "At this time, our victims are at a loss of over $200,000."īurke and Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey urged people to go inside post offices to mail checks, gift cards and other potentially valuable items. Ryan Burke said in a video posted Tuesday on the Sheriff's Office's Facebook page. "We are currently investigating over 40 cases throughout the county of mail theft from these mailboxes," Det. Hamilton County Sheriff's Office detectives believe thieves are using Pierani's stolen post office key to unlock large blue mailboxes around the county and steal mail. 19 when a masked man wearing a hoodie pointed a gun at his head and demanded Pierani's master mailbox key. Unauthorized possession of a USPS key is a federal crime punishable by up to ten years in prison.CINCINNATI - Norwood postal worker Ryan Pierani said he was eating lunch in his marked post office delivery vehicle Jan. Mail theft is a state and federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison and substantial fines. It obviously doesn’t mean everybody is doing it, you just need a very, very small number of people to do that to have an impact on society," Ogilbie said. "Some people just get up in the morning and that’s their job to go out and skim as opportunities to skim whatever they can off society. mail remains one of the most secure means to transmit such items, unfortunately, these items are also attractive to thieves." They are asking postal customers to check their mailboxes daily, as the longer the mail sits in the mailbox, the more susceptible it is to theft," The U.S. Postal Service safely delivers mail to more than 150 million addresses mails that include checks, money orders, credit cards, and merchandise. "These crimes of opportunity are there, and people are able to take advantage of more easily and so it’s just up to me and other people to say that if we want our stuff to get someplace safe and reliable, we should look at other options," Ogilbie said. It would also include measures the postal services is taking to combat theft. to submit a report to Congress on nationwide mail theft trends and postal property to a House and Senate committee. The act would require the Comptroller General of the U.S. Randy Weber (R-14) are also acting by introducing legislation to help prevent mail theft called the Upholding a Secure Postal Service Systems, or USPS Act. "I know that these types of crimes are very personal, and I am seeking a way for the city to overcome them in a way that’s productive and helps try to mitigate the problem," Kelly said. "Everyone who I've spoken to at least feels pretty violated by it," Austin resident Ashley Hornung said.Ĭouncil woman Kelly asked the city manager in April to send a letter to the Postmaster General requesting a change of master keys for mailboxes across the city. Two men seen breaking into mailboxes at Northwest Austin condosĮarlier this month, new cameras captured two men in security outfits that were able to get past the locked gate and start opening up boxes and stealing mail, appearing to have a master key.
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