WATERTOWN, Conn. — Watertown Police issued a warning after they noticed a spike in incidents where criminals have retrieved checks intended to be mailed, being washed and cashed for higher amounts.
Police said criminals use a stolen key or a makeshift device to retrieve the checks from some of the blue postal mailboxes in town.
“We don't think we have one person who is potentially doing this, It might be multiple people or maybe they're just writing different names on checks with different having different IDs to cash them,” said Deputy Chief Renee Dominguez.
Watertown police said they’ve seen a spike in the last month and it's happened this week.
The amounts on the checks range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.
“Each one has been different,” said Dominguez
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Police are offering advice to avoid being a victim of check washing:
- Go inside the post office to send your mail.
- If you do use the blue mailboxes drop off mail shortly before collection times so your mail. isn’t left for long periods of time.
- Retrieve your own mail as soon as possible.
- When writing checks use gel ink to make it harder to wash off.
- Monitor your bank account closely.
Police in Watertown ask the public to report any suspicious activity near mailboxes.
Criminals could face fraud and larceny charges as well as felony charges since tampering with mail is a federal crime.
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