In My Neck of The Woods- Public Service Announcement: FRAUD

On Monday May 16, I arrived home at approximately 4pm. I went to check my mail and bring my trashcan that was by the street to the house-our trash pickup is on Mondays and Thursdays here in BA. When I got the can to the side of the house I looked down and noticed a bunch of crumpled envelopes. BA trash doesn't take trash unless it is in a trash sack. Drives me crazy. I reached down and after further inspection realized they belonged to local residents. They all had stamps and return addresses, had been slit opened. Some were obviously bills, a graduation announcement and one from out of state. I called the BA police and they sent an officer out.

Of course fingerprints cannot be lifted off of an envelope. There were 10 envelopes dropped in my trashcan. I of course knew exactly what this was, having had 10 years of bank management experience in the past, and have dealt with this before in the branches. Identity theft at its worse. What makes this even harder is that the BA police had to call the Wagoner County Sheriff out to contact these people, because even though they have a BA address and live 8 blocks or so from me, they aren't annexed w/ the city of BA- poor folks.

How many times do people have to be told use online banking or go to your nearest mailing station and physically walk your mail inside to a box. Very tragic. This is a Federal Crime folks, do not steal things from mailboxes, do not mail personal information from mailboxes, it takes months even years to get these things straightened out!