Photo of the mailbox fisher’s haul (Photo: 112 Precinct/ Twitter)
Aug. 30, 2018 By Tara Law
Police nabbed a 22-year-old Bronx man they spotted stealing mail from a Forest Hills mailbox during the early hours Friday.
Luis Velaquez, 22, was charged with criminal larceny, criminal tampering, criminal possession of stolen property and possession of burglar tools.
At around 2:30 a.m. Aug. 24, officers from the 112 precinct saw Velaquez pulling mail out of a Forest Hills mailbox near 65th Avenue and 108th Street. Velaquez was arrested on the scene.
The precinct released a photo of the objects Velaquez was caught with, including a pile of envelopes and a juice bottle tied with strings.
The NYPD has repeatedly warned New Yorkers that mailbox “fishing” is a popular tactic among thieves in the city.
Thieves typically slather a heavy object with something sticky, tie the object with a string and lower it into a mailbox, police say.
The goal of such an operation is often to steal checks, which can then be “washed” and rewritten with different information.
After Velaquez’s arrest, police from the 112 Precinct took to Twitter to advise the community to protect themselves.
“Always remember if you place your check in a mailbox please do so as close to pickup time as possible or better yet directly inside the Post Office,” the post said. “Otherwise this could end up being your check one day.”
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13 Comments
Wow, I’ve heard people say, ” who uses checks”
When this should not be a criticism, people should pay any way that’s allowed.
Then someone suggested paying online, which in case anyone doesn’t know had its own unique set of security problems.
I have to agree with the person who said ” just fix the mailboxes to make fishing either impossible or is extremely difficult as possible, stop criminals not the law-abiding citizens by taking away Avenues of paying their bills, seems perfectly rational to me.
Would like to leave this group as I feel the responses to my post about a gift card I sent to my daughter being stolen were nasty and childish thought this was an adult group
Maybe you should focus on being a better parent so your child didn’t lie so much instead of worrying about the internet.
Theyre using “something sticky” to fish mail out of a box… but are just as smart to “wash” checks??? These people are morons
Great! No how about catching the ones doing this in Jackson Hts.? It took me almost a year to convince Verizon that the check I sent them had been stolen before they got it. What a nightmare! Here’s an idea: how about QUICKLY changing all these mail boxes to “slot” openings, rather than “pull-down door” openings? This check stealing business has been going on for almost 2 years and yet most of the mailboxes are still not safe to use.
How about paying your bills online or setup automatic withdrawals from your checking? Seriously.
That is the most sensible and rational solution to this problem, not taking away other methods of getting your bills paid, specifically for senior citizens who don’t use computers, smartphones, tablets they for whatever reason still use snail mail and paper checks, and I just don’t see why this should be taken away from them.
Sent a gift card to my Daughter in Florida she never got it it was used I checked but still had some cash lift on it I called Kohl’s and reported it they would not give me a new card said I had to get a report from the Police Dept which was crazy because it had happened 3 weeks previous was hoping Kohl’s would reimburse me as they had half the gift card money
Your daughter lied she spent the card and was trying to get you to give her another one.
Maybe your kid would do that not mine
They’re right mom I lied sorry. PS can you buy my a new iPad?
It’s 2018, who the F*&$# sends a check through the mail??
Lots of people, honey.