More victims of “check washing” are speaking out about their experiences as officials press the U.S. Postal Service about how it’s addressing the crime that has spiked in Chicago.
The stolen-check scheme involves thieves stealing mail, erasing the ink with chemicals and rewriting the checks for themselves, as the Sun-Times reported Tuesday.
People can avoid being a victim by using gel pens with ink that can’t be removed with chemicals or by avoiding blue mailboxes and depositing mail inside a post office.
Some experts say their suggestions to handle the crime are not being implemented.
“It’s very easy to prevent,” researcher David Maimon said of check washing.
He claims to have first spotted the trend of thieves selling “washed” checks online. He has given USPS suggestions to prevent check washing but hasn’t seen them implemented. “I’m just shocked that law enforcement is not doing enough to prevent this,” Maimon said in an interview last month.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which investigates the crime, again declined to outline steps it is taking to combat check washing.
In a statement, an agency spokesman said: “The Inspection Service continues to vigorously pursue suspects of violent and financial crimes, while simultaneously working with our USPS partners to identify and address potential points of vulnerability in how U.S. Mail, USPS employees and facilities, can be protected.”
Mack Julion, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers Chicago, said he’s helped draft a city ordinance proposal to combat the spike in letter carriers being robbed at gunpoint for their master “arrow” keys that are then used to steal letters from mailboxes.
The ordinance would move some “cluster” mailboxes from the street to inside apartment buildings, Julion said. He said the union helped draft the ordinance with Ald. Derrick Curtis (18th), who didn’t return a call seeking comment Wednesday. Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office did not comment.
Julion said he understands the Postal Inspection Service is “tight-lipped” about measures it is taking to prevent check washing and trusts the agency is addressing the crime. The Postal Service is considering removing some blue mailboxes not in heavy use, Julion said.
“It’s disappointing because (the crime) discourages our customers from using (mailboxes) publicly available to them,” Julion said.
U.S. Rep Mike Quigley said, “It’s a shame we have to worry about the safety of blue boxes.” Quigley and other officials have been working with USPS to eliminate those issues, he said.
In July, Quigley and other law makers sent a letter to the Postmaster General Louis DeJoy asking what steps the USPS is taking to combat the rise in robberies of letter carriers for their keys.
Sen. Dick Durbin on Wednesday said he is disappointed with the “insufficient response” they received this week, not from DeJoy but from the Postal Inspection Service.
Last year, the Postal Inspection Service created a special investigative team to address robberies of letters carriers in the Chicago area, according to the Oct. 6 letter from Chief Postal Inspector Gary Barksdale.
The Chicago Police Department now has an analyst for the Postal Inspection Service embedded in CPD’s daily security briefings, Barksdale wrote.
Mass alerts used to be sent to letter carriers across Chicago when a carrier was robbed or assaulted, but those citywide alerts “had the effect of creating unnecessary fear and confusion” among workers because the information was not vetted by the Postal Inspection Service, Barksdale wrote.
The Postal Inspection Service now sends alerts to employees in a more targeted way, Barksdale wrote. USPS is also educating letter carriers about how to reduce the risk of harm during the robberies, he wrote.
More victims speak out
Some victims of check washing who reached out to the Sun-Times on Wednesday had never heard of the scam until they were victimized.
“It was just devastating,” said Joan Love, whose $100 check was stolen from a mailbox in May outside the Harwood Heights Post Office and rewritten to someone else for $8,500.
She told her bank that her check was lost or stolen after her nephew said he hadn’t received her graduation card and check. But the bank employee told her not to worry about it since her name was written on it, Love said.
Two months later, she learned the check had been rewritten and cashed to someone else.
“They should’ve caught” the check, Love said, pointing out that the signature looked nothing like hers and the amount written in the box did not match what it was written out for. “I think that should’ve rang some alarm,” she said.
Love said she needs the money returned to help her move. She can’t stay at the walk-up she lives in now because of a lung condition.
“It’s getting a lot harder to take the stairs,” she said. “I need to find another place to live before I can’t do it anymore.”
Attorney Steve Fritzshall said he thought he knew every scam in the book until his check was stolen and washed six weeks ago in Edison Park on the Northwest Side. “This (scam) floored me,” he said.
Luckily, his firm caught the washed check before it was cashed because his bank delays payment until a day after it’s posted. He urged everyone to check their accounts every day for suspicious activity.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated to include a statement from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
