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Investigation into check fraud
A Tampa woman said a check she wrote out to her child's school was stolen out of the mail, and someone used it to forge a check for thousands of dollars. She said it overdrafted her account, causing a major financial setback. FOX 13's Danielle Zulkosky reports.
TAMPA, Fla. - A Tampa woman said a check she wrote out to her child's school was stolen out of the mail, and someone used it to forge a check for thousands of dollars. She said it overdrafted her account, causing a major financial setback.
What we know:
Abigail Reynolds said despite using a USPS blue mailbox near her home, her check was stolen and someone used it to commit check fraud. The check she wrote was for $1,000 to her child's school, but she said someone stole that check and used it to write a check for $4,500.
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"I noticed a very sizable check written to a person's name that I didn't recognize," Reynolds said.
Reynolds obtained a copy of the cashed check from her bank: USAA. The date was typed onto the check, her checks do not say memo at the bottom and the spacing was off.
"I realized was that it wasn't actually one of our personal checks," Reynolds said. "It almost looked like someone had maybe used scissors or some sort of an editing program to create a check."
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Reynolds learned this check was cashed at Florida Central Credit Union, and it overdrafted her account, causing a major headache.
"I question why my check was able to be cashed at a bank when it is not even what our checks look like," Reynolds said.
Dig deeper:
Reynolds did her own investigation and went to the credit union where the check was cashed and learned who did it, obtained a copy of the cashed check and brought all of this to police.
"It was very frustrating how I had so much information, and I felt like I had done all of the digging and I had all of the evidence to provide them, and I just couldn't get anybody to listen to my story," Reynolds said.
Reynolds said the Tampa Police Department would not let her file a report in-person without a fraud affidavit from her bank. USAA told Reynolds it does not provide those.
"Beg to file a police report and was told, 'well, you know, we can't really do it,'" Reynolds said. "You should probably just do it at home anyways. Very resistant to file it in person."
Police also told her she should file a complaint with the United States Postal Inspection Service.
"I was able to complete the postal service investigation," Reynolds said. "And then I filed the police report online, it was incomplete. It wouldn't upload my attachments."
Why you should care:
She learned she is not the only victim of mail theft at this location.
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"The police doesn't really seem concerned with this at all, and they were almost rude about it, but it's so common that I think criminals are just not worried about getting caught," Reynolds said.
Reynolds said she will continue to fight for justice for herself and for those that can not fight for themselves. So far, she has not gotten her money back.
The other side:
TPD was unable to comment on this story at this time. The Postal Service and USAA Bank have also not yet responded to FOX 13's requests for comment.
Florida Central Credit Union started to look into this matter Thursday afternoon.
The Source: Information in this story comes from interviews and reporting done by FOX 13's Danielle Zulkosky.