OKLAHOMA CITY – A neighborhood in southeast Oklahoma City is on alert after checks and letters have vanished from mailboxes.
Larry Malkowski put his cable bill in the mail this week only to find the envelope right back in his hands.
“I was out here working in the garage and one of the neighbors from around the corner came and brought it back to me and said, ‘Hey, this is a little strange. It was in my mailbox, but uh it had been opened’,” Malkowski recalled.
The nearly $100 check inside was gone.
“So I had to cancel the check, and when you put a stop order on a check, it will cost you $25,” Malkowski said.
He is not really worried about the money it cost him, but is more concerned for his neighbors.
“You don’t know how many other people in the neighborhood have had that happen to them that don’t know about it. And if they’re washing those checks and rewriting the amounts on them and cashing them, that could cost some people a lot of money,” Malkowski said.
Come to find out, a number of mailboxes have been targeted in the Winfield Addition.
Carriers say they have been stopping when they see red flags, but when they open the mailbox, it is empty.
“It’s frustrating,” Malkowski said.
Knowing what it feels like to be victimized, Malkowski is asking his neighbors to keep an eye out.
“Yeah, can’t trust people,” he said.
The U.S. Postal Service told NewsChannel 4 it cannot confirm if it is investigating the thefts, but asks anyone who has been victimized to contact the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Inspectors advise you to directly take your mail to the post office to avoid becoming a victim of mail theft.