MPD investigating spree of stolen checks

When Phil Hoffman mailed a check to pay his subscription to The Daily Times, he didn’t expect it would turn into a police report.

“I didn’t notice it until I went to balance my accounts,” he said. There was a scan of his check on file, deposited by someone he didn’t know. Every ounce of ink had been washed off and replaced with new text — every ounce except his signature.

The new total was $9,217.78.

What Hoffman didn’t know when he put his check in the box at the Maryville Post Office is that local law enforcement has been investigating a slew of similar situations for weeks. From the end of May to mid-July, the Maryville Police Department has seen a total of 15 individuals with 86 checks fraudulently deposited or cashed. The total reported loss is just under $85,000.

“It’s been on our radar for several weeks, and we’ve been concerned,” Maryville Police Chief Tony Crisp told The Daily Times in a phone interview Wednesday afternoon, July 31. “We’ve been working diligently regarding all of these cases.”

Not every one of the stolen checks was mailed, Crisp said, but a “large percentage” were dropped off at the post office like Hoffman’s payment.

“It’s been since the end of May or the first of June that we started getting these kinds of reports,” Crisp said. “In fact, we got another case in yesterday.”

In a police report filed that day, a Maryville woman reported a check she’d mailed rewritten for $833.44. On July 25, a Maryville man reported a check he’d posted for his mortgage had been washed and rewritten — this time for $4,350. Oftentimes, Crisp said, it’s not the checks themselves that are used, but information gathered from the checks. He said electronic methods of transferring money can sometimes be more secure than sending money in the mail, but “anything has cracks in it.”

A representative of the U.S. Postal Service Office of the Inspector General declined to confirm whether the office has an ongoing investigation in the area, citing standard protocol around investigations.

“If a customer believes there has been theft or fraud committed by a postal employee, please have them complete a hotline complaint with our agency,” office representatives wrote in a statement. The Daily Times customers who wish to use a check to pay for subscriptions can do so by using the drop box at our offices at 226 Gill St., Alcoa.