South Bay Couple Charged in Mail Theft Case
08/20/2013
South Bay Couple Charged in Mail Theft Case
The NC3TF was contacted by Sausalito Police regarding reports of mail theft. The case was assigned to a US Postal Inspector assigned to the task force. The Postal Inspector sent mail theft notification letters to all of the residents of the addresses identified by the Police Department. The letter included an alert to possible mail theft in their area. The letter requested the residents contact the U.S. Postal Inspection Service if any fraudulent activity was discovered on their financial accounts.
One victim that responded to the letters had found that she had over $14,000.00 of fraudulent charges on her Saks Fifth Avenue account. Surveillance photos related to those charges revealed a male and female using the cards together in San Francisco, Milpitas and Livermore.
The surveillance photos of the suspect were circulated to Law Enforcement agencies throughout the Bay Area and the female suspect was identified by another US Postal Inspector from a previous Identity Theft investigation. The second (male) suspect was later identified from the female suspects’ Facebook account and it was found that they were currently living together with the female’s father in Hayward.
During this investigation we were notified that both suspects had recently been arrested by Dublin Police after traffic stop revealed stolen mail. A follow up probation search of Motel room found to be associated with them revealed hundreds of pieces of stolen mail, computers, printers, and check stock.
The NC3TF Inspector took over this investigation as well. The evidence form the motel room was further reviewed and a total of 184 printed checks that appeared to have been created by using stolen account information from 26 compromised bank accounts; 85 personal checks from various financial institutions and account holders that were blank or filled out with payment information; and 35 business checks sent by various companies with a total value of $172,167.37
From a Forensics examination of the computers, additional evidence of identity theft and manufacturing fake identifications and checks was discovered.
Charges were later filed in Alameda County against both suspects.