Police in Pennsylvania charged a Red Bank man last week with crimes involving checks stolen from residential mailboxes.
Lehigh Valley Live reported Friday that police charged borough resident Elijah King Walker-Grant, 22, and Gabriella Marie Riggio, 20, of Clayton, New Jersey, on felony forgery and theft by deception charges.
According to the news report, which cited court filings by Bethlehem Township police, the pair are alleged to have stolen checks left for postal service pickup in homeowners’ mailboxes in “multiple” thefts beginning in July.
An earlier Facebook post by the Colonial Regional Police Department said the pair drove through neighborhoods looking for mailboxes with the flag up, indicating outgoing mail.
The pay-to names and amounts were later altered, and the checks cashed, according to Lehigh Valley live.
From the report:
In one of the alleged thefts, a victim on Sept. 5 placed checks in two separate envelopes in a residential mailbox for pickup in Bethlehem Township, police said in court papers. The checks were stolen, with the pay-to name changed and the amounts altered to $3,465.52 and $4,850.28, police said. The checks were allegedly cashed the same day by Riggio, they said, using the account of the person whose name was now on the check at a local TD Bank, police said.
Police used video from Ring home security systems and bank surveillance in the investigation, the reports said.
More charges are expected to be filed against Riggio, who was allegedly the driver of the car used in the pickup of the stolen mail, and at least two additional people are expected to be charged in the investigation, a police official told Lehigh Valley Live.
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