JASPER COUNTY, Texas — The Jasper County Sheriff's Office wants to know who is stealing outgoing checks from mailboxes just west of Jasper.
Thieves have targeted rural mailboxes along FM 1747 for the past couple of weeks, officials said.
Jasper County Sheriff Mitchell Newman said these thieves have made it difficult for law enforcement to trace them.
One of the victims said he believes drugs are making these criminals desperate.
Mail theft can often go unnoticed, since thieves tend to be sneaky. Unfortunately, Beech Grove resident Ronald McBride's check for his water bill was taken from his mailbox.
"It's been two weeks ago," McBride said. "We normally paid our water bill through the mail box out here."
In a span of about two weeks, at least four people who live off of FM 1147 have gotten their outgoing checks stolen.
TRACK YOUR MAIL | Here's how to monitor delivery with USPS
"Seems like they are targeting bigger mail boxes and houses that are far from the road," Sheriff Newman said. "When people put mail in the box, they put the flag up."
Newman said they'll take the outgoing checks and remove the ink writing, then re-write it to a fake identification that they're using and cash it.
He said in one case, the thieves duplicated a stolen check and cashed that also.
McBride said many retirees live in the rural area.
"I want to enjoy this retirement and not worry about thieves," he said.
Newman said they're closing in on the suspects and they expect to make arrests soon. For now, he asked residents in the area to protect themselves and stop using their mailboxes for outgoing mail.
"We will stop doing that and got to the trouble of paying it in town," McBride said.
However, there are ways to monitor mail. The United States Postal Service has something called informed delivery, which sends you photos of your incoming mail every morning.
Then you'll know if something important is being delivered that day.
