An Upper West Sider recently claimed that a check they mailed was stolen from a mailbox in front of the West 83rd Street Post Office, between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues. They allege that once the envelope was “stolen out of the box, the check [was] washed, and $9,900 was stolen from my account.” The individual states that the actual amount they wrote on the check was smaller.
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The alleged victim, who asked to remain anonymous, started a thread on the Nextdoor app to alert neighbors of what had happened. “That’s the end of me mailing anything unless it is from inside a post office,” they wrote before another neighbor asked, “How do you know that it was stolen from the box and not later in the delivery process?”
The question opened up varying opinions. One commenter argued that it could have been intercepted at the point of delivery, it could have potentially fallen out of the mail bag, or the recipient could have accidentally dropped it. They went on to say, “It’s pretty easy to come up with a dozen simpler explanations than it being stolen from a USPS box right in front of a post office.”
One neighbor shared their experience, saying, “We all know that theft from UWS mailboxes has been an ongoing problem for several years… I had a check stolen 2 years ago and it took 8 months and MANY calls to Chase but I did get refunded. (Check was clearly erased and modified).”
The anonymous alleged victim told us they’re currently in the process of filing a fraud claim with their bank, which they hope will reimburse them. They’re also planning to file a police report with the 20th Precinct. When asked how they’ll handle mailing moving forward, we were told, “I will never mail a check anywhere again as long as I live. I’m electronic from here on in! In addition to being shocking and devastating, this experience has only heightened the awful dispirited feeling I already have about the state of our city, our country and the world.”
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An employee of the USPS, Jennifer Morales, also chimed in on the thread. When speaking with ILTUWS, she offered that her best advice for mailing anything of value is to take it inside the post office. Morales also noted, “I would say hand it directly to a carrier but sometimes carriers get robbed.” Morales told us thefts in the USPS happen and sometimes they go unreported. “When they stole my [mailman’s] cart they didn’t notify us. I may get in trouble for talking but honestly, they need to say something.”
In late March, Bloomberg wrote about a study in which Georgia State professor David Maimon and a team of 15 students “combed through thousands of social media channels, group chats, and dark web sites. Their efforts [included] compiling images of checks for sale to look for patterns.” In January 2022, Maimon and his team had documented 750 stolen checks from New York over the previous six months. The professor noted the people committing these crimes didn’t seem the least bit concerned with getting caught, either. “They post photos of themselves with piles of money,” says Maimon. “They don’t hide. They’re brazen.”
I have mailed check-paying bills inside the post office that never arrived. A birthday card from the UWS to LIC took 6 weeks to arrive. A package to LIC took 7 weeks to arrive. These instances are no longer anomalies; Louis DeJoy has destroyed the USPS.
I don’t know about DeJoy. I do know that there are vast differences among the local managements of our local post offices. And the Planetarium post office is the worst run that I have experienced. Just go to another post office on the UWS and see if you have the same experience of waiting on long lines where the employee at the window walks away for long intervals while everyone waits, or where they claim that they cannot find an item when a notification was left at your home that you need to come to pick up a package or a letter. The only way I can make sense of the differences I have experienced is that the employees do not care, they are not well treated by their boss, the local manager is incompetent or absent, and the place is therefore a disgraceful mess.
Your not alone my friend. It happened to me on two occations where I sent personal checks and money orders to a relative in Calif. and posted inside the postoffice in the security box!
After some investigation (Money Order) they gave me some cockamani story that it had
been cashed and signed by the person I addressed it too!
Go figure!
Best, Celia J.
Why is DeJoy still there??????
I thought that all mailboxes were modified several years ago so there is only a narrow slit wide enough only for envelopes, not thieves’ equipment. How can one steal a check from a mailbox these days?
I also had six checks stolen from the post boxes in front of the Planetarium Station, on September 28, 2022. Three of them were cashed, for a total of $14,555; three are still outstanding. I reported the theft to the USPS Investigators, which you can do online. I am sure my bank will eventually repay my account, as there are random names with no connection to the entities to whom the checks were made out who endorsed them to cash them. The bank never should have paid them to these individuals, and they have acknowledged that. But it is so much work to close that account, open another, change all the automatic and bill pay payments, notify those who still have checks outstanding, reissue checks, etc. It will take months to reconcile everything.
Same happened to me at that location. Was caught online by my financial institution. This was a known issue that was supposed to have been solved by the new slots instead of doors on the boxes. Definitely went in the box and was stolen from custody of the USPS or if not from the recipient, but recipient was a government agency as well who denies that could happen. Filed a report with postal inspectors on the advice of said financial institution but doubt anything will come of it. If the boxes aren’t secure they should be removed, simple as that.
I was the victim of this exact crime several years ago (pre-pandemic). I had to file a police report in order to be reimbursed by my bank. It was a hassle but I did get my money back. The police officer told me to avoid sending checks through the mail and that, as much as possible, I should rely on an electronic means of transferring money because I’d have a record of the transaction. He also said that the theft of UWS mailboxes was rampant, that the thieves use common glue traps on the end of disassembled hangers and go fishing in the boxes for envelopes containing checks. I had thought the newly designed mailboxes had helped minimize a criminal’s ability to carry this off, but maybe this isn’t true. I do know that at Christmastime last year, I attempted to mail some holiday cards outside the post office at 67th and Columbus but the mailbox slot was impenetrable since it was stuffed with glue boards. In fact, this was true for every mailbox for several blocks north and several blocks south. I don’t know if this was because someone was trying to go fishing for checks or if it was simply vandalism. If it was the former, perhaps this model of mailbox prevented the “fishing expedition” from happening. I suppose it’s also possible that the perpetrator was just not very skilled. In any event, as much as possible, I have followed the police detective’s advice and send money electronically. While this method has its own risks, thus far, I have thankfully had no issues.
It’s this specific post office. Happened to me, was a Con Edison check rewritten for $9,900 same exact amount.
Last fall, this happened to me. A check mailed at the post box at 89th and West End was stolen, washed and cashed for $9,900. My bank caught it in time and restored my money. Who are these people and why aren’t they stopped?
I witnessed theft from a mail box on Columbus in the 60s (not at the Ansonia Station) years ago.
Separately, I know of someone who had a check stolen from and East Village street mail box, the check for a couple thousand dollars to a credit card company was cashed at a bank.
In the second case, it’s pretty clear that the bank employee cashing the check had to be in on the deal.
Both of these events were more than 4 years ago.
Maybe NYC landlords can join the 21st Century so I can pay my rent online instead of via check. A check I have to mail cos they don’t have a rent drop box in the buildings or at their office.
My landlord takes payments online, I don’t use that method.
I tire of having all sorts of online accounts.
Furthermore, this isn’t just rent checks being stolen, and then there are people who avoid using the internet for payments entirely — even if they know how and have all the right upto date hardware and software.
I have the same situation my check for my rent got stolen in the mailbox and I’m in the Bronx!! Happened to me last year the first time and I’ve send my rent for many years never happened to me!! I put an investigation in the present and I’m still trying to get my money with Western Union,, I’m so pissed cuz I cannot afford $1,500 to disappear like that
Where in the Bronx are you? This shit just happened to me yesterday. I had to find out from Chase it’s gonna take 60-90 days for the reimbursement. SMFH. I’m in Bedford Park btw. I don’t think it got stolen here though. I always make sure my mail goes into the mailbox. My landlord has a PO box in the UWS so it probably got fished out there.
This just happened to us. A check was stolen and rewritten for $9,900. Must be the same person!
I mailed my check inside the post office. One of them was stolen last summer. The amount was changed to $1,100 higher than what I wrote. When I went to the NYPD to report it, the detective told me he hadn’t mailed a check for the last three years and he recommended that I NEVER mail a check again. Since then I have mailed only one check, when I had no option and I kept track of when it cleared, by the person I wrote it to.
And yet, I mail checks all the time.
However, I don’t mail them from street mail boxes.
I too live in the Bronx but work on the UWS and have been a victim of this twice. Once in Dec for $750 and last month for $5,000. They did not get me for the $5k but we’re successful on the $750. which I received my money back.
I actually thought it was someone in building mgt and posted signs in the building and received 6 responses. Am going to file a police report and try to get the others to follow but now reading this I guess it’s mailbox theft but still hard for me to believe given the new boxes. Anyone able to give any further advice please reach out.
I wonder if there are any updates on this. The last few weeks we have had 2 (and possibly 3) checks go missing. One was a check to our landlord that was mailed from inside the post office on Sept 3rd and has been “lost” ever since.
We have something called informed delivery where we get an email every morning with an image of all the mail that we will be receiving that day. On Sept 26, it showed that we would be getting a check payment from an accounts payable department, and that mail piece was not delivered and is still missing. Today it shows we are supposed to receive a check payment from bill.com, and the envelope says “payment enclosed”, and so far it is not in our mailbox.