Check washing crime in backcountry Greenwich
- Guy
- Mar 20
- 1 min read
On March 6, a pile of discarded open mail envelopes was found on Upper Lake Avenue north of Close Road. These were fresh outbound mailings without cancellation-marked stamps and return addresses on the envelopes from Lake Avenue, North Street and Stamford.
Check washing is a form of mail fraud. The thieves steal checks from the mail box before the carrier has picked it up and then use chemicals to erase the original payee and amount on the check. This allows them to rewrite it for a larger sum of money and deposit it into their account
The police say that this is a common crime that has occurred in other parts of Greenwich. Mail is also stolen by creative thieves from the big blue stationary boxes located throughout the community. Police recommend taking checks directly to the post office and not leave them for postal pick up your mailbox.
Between the Lines: No more red flags on mailboxes showing thieves there is something to pick up.