The Alexander City Outlook

Locals report check thefts

Bob and Teresa Allen were in for a surprise when they checked their mail Wednesday.

The Allens, who live on Highway 22 in the Ray Community in Coosa County, were shocked to open their monthly bank statement and see that, rather than promptly paying their bills this month, two of their checks had been mysteriously cashed for large amounts of money at Walmart.

“We had a statement from the bank, and it showed that our checks were bouncing like crazy – huge amounts,” Bob Allen said. “Somebody got our checks that were outgoing out of our mailbox, changed them somehow and then cashed them.”

Two checks they placed in their outgoing mail – a $25 check written to dentist Wendy Holder and a $67.99 check to Dish Network – had become a $969.84 check cashed at Walmart in Opelika and a $584.33 check cashed at Walmart in Hoover, respectively.

“We put them in the mailbox the evening of (July 6) so they could have gotten them the evening of (July 6) or the morning of (July 7),” he said. “They must have just beaten the mailman to it. The checks were cashed on July 13 and July 14 and we found out July 21.”

“We still have checks out too – so we’re up in the air about those right now,” he said.

The Allens filed a report with the Coosa County Sheriff’s Department that day for theft of property third degree, and Teresa Allen shared in the report that she had noticed strange activity near their home in the past several weeks with “people coming in their yard, parking across the street as well as stopping near their mailbox in a black Ford F-150 driven by a black female.”

They also soon discovered they likely weren’t the suspect’s only victims.

One of their neighbors, who declined to be named in this article, said she put an outgoing check in her mailbox to State Farm Insurance on July 6 as well, but later found a note from the mail carrier saying they didn’t find any outgoing mail in the box, even though the flag was up. She soon found out the check was cashed at Walmart in Opelika July 13 for the amount of $732.24.

Another local resident in Ray Community – who also requested not to be named – claims she had three checks stolen from her mailbox in June: with one cashed at Walmart in Opelika, one cashed at Walmart in Chelsea and the last cashed at Murphy Oil in Alexander City.

Coosa County Sheriff Terry Wilson confirmed the department is investigating the thefts of checks from the mailboxes of three separate residences in the Ray Community.

“All three are being investigated,” Wilson said. “All three victims’ mail left the Ray Community and went into the Tallapoosa County area. We have partnered with the Alexander City Police Department to share information and hopefully bring justice to the case.”

“Be cautious what you put in your mailbox,” he added. “It’s a tough time we live in.”

Bob Allen said he is in the process of working with his bank, Aliant, to get the money restored to his account, and also expressed concerns over Walmart’s policy of not asking for ID from customers cashing checks through their TeleCheck system.

“They cleaned us out, and the amount they wrote was pretty close to what we had in the bank – that makes me think they somehow knew what we had,” he said.

“I had never had a bad check – ever,” he added.

In addition, he said he is trying to get the word out about the thefts in an attempt to prevent any more local residents from falling victim to such crimes.

“I’m trying to put out an alert to let people know this is going on in the area and make people aware that if they put outgoing mail in their mailbox, they’re probably setting themselves up to be victims like we were,” Bob Allen said. “Thieves will prey on something like that – they’ll drive along and see a red flag up on a mailbox and just take it.”

He added that he believes whoever took the checks is preying on senior citizens.

“We’re from the old school,” he said. “We follow the Golden Rule and trust our neighbors. Nowadays it’s not like that. We’re having to learn how to live in this day and age.”