Check-stealing scheme hits Pataskala mailboxes
PATASKALA, Ohio (WCMH) - Pataskala Police are looking for a person they say has stolen mail directly from mailboxes in the area since at least March.
"We're looking at a white Ford or select sedan. It looks like it has minor front-end damage, but the most distinct feature is that it has a black lower pump around it. The last time he hit us, we took ten reports in one day," Sgt. Mike Reitz with Pataskala Police said.
That four-door sedan showed up on the police radar initially in March when the car drove through a Pataskala neighborhood and was caught on camera pulling over and taking mail from a mailbox.
"He's looking for mailboxes with the flag up, and he's stealing the mail. And in turn, he's washing the checks. It's always the same vehicle it's doing it. And I would only I can only assume that you see it in other communities also," Reitz said.
The home the car took the mail from was that of Mike and Cindy Miller. Mike was passing by a window when something caught his eye. He looked through the front window and saw the whole thing happen.
"He's backing up the back past mailbox,” Mike Miller said. “Come back to the mailbox, opened it up and took the check. And I was just kind of like, I cannot believe what I just saw. The first thing I did was call Cindy."
"I was on my way to the grocery,” Cindy Miller said. “I stopped at the bank, stop payment on the check and closed out the checking account. I was thinking, oh, my God, like, how do people do this? You know, and I was thinking they could just wipe out the whole checking account.”
They were lucky. Cindy agreed, "Yes, very lucky, because if my husband wouldn't have seen that happen, you know, the checking account probably would have been wiped out."
Not every victim has been as lucky. Reitz said up to $5,000 has been stolen from some.
The Millers usually take great care of paying bills and sending money. That day, it was a check for $200 for a deposit on a vacation.
"I usually always do pay the bills electronically,” Cindy Miller said. “But this day, Mike said, ‘Do you want me to put this in the mailbox?’ I said, ‘Oh, go ahead, it'll be fine.’ Both of our Social Security checks had been deposited in there. So there was quite a bit of money in the account at that time. It's terrible. It's just, you know, you think you're okay putting it in the mailbox."
Cindy posted a notification on the Nextdoor app right away, alerting her neighbors of the thief in their neighborhood. She said their mail carrier commented on the post.
"She saw my post and she said that day that there were eight other mailboxes that had had their flag up, but no mail in the box," Cindy Miller said.
A week later, the Miller's saw that envelope shoved back into their mailbox, no check inside. This spooked them.
"That put a little scare in me because we were ready to go on vacation for a couple of weeks, and I wasn't real sure if we should go," Mike Miller said.
Reitz explained how the thief is taking checks and turning them into thousands of dollars.
"There's a chemical and chemical mixture that he is dipping the checks into, racing the ink off the tracks and forging the person's name again and trying to cash them," he said.
After the checks are "washed," they can be written out to anyone; the thief just needs someone to write a check to.
"He's finding homeless people or paying them a small amount to try to go into the bank and cash the stolen checks," he said.
Pataskala Police ask anyone who may be able to identify the vehicles to call them as soon as possible, before others fall victim.
"I sure hope they find this person, you know, because a lot of people have lost a lot more. And we were lucky," Mike Miller said.