CINCINNATI — A grand jury has indicted five people for conspiracy to commit mail theft after officials said they stole cash and checks taken from blue collection boxes in the Cincinnati area from June 2022 to March 2023.
According to the indictment, some members would steal USPS arrow keys that have universal access to collection boxes. The group would then take mail from collection boxes, stealing any cash or checks they came across.
The indictment says William Lindsay and co-conspirators illegally accessed a collection box at 1801 Chase Avenue in November 2022, then stole from boxes at the intersection of St. Charles and Erie Avenue and at 2719 Madison Road on Feb. 2.
Mail stolen on Feb. 2 was brought to Amos Ashley's home on Daly Road where Ashley, Arnando Miller, Derray Kennedy and Monae Mosley are accused of handling the stolen mail.
Later that month, Miller, Kennedy and Mosley allegedly stole mail from two more boxes near Brentwood Plaza in Springfield Township. The three were stopped by police, who found the stolen mail in their possession. The indictment says Kennedy hid an arrow key in the back of a police cruiser while being detained.
On March 13, the indictment says Lindsay planned and executed the robbery of a postal worker at an apartment building in the Villages at Roll Hill, stealing an arrow key. He is charged with robbery of a person carrying U.S. property and assault of a government employee.
During this time, members would change the recipient and amount of money listed on stolen checks, deposit them and then withdraw cash before banks could detect any fraud. The indictment notes a check for $978.95 altered to $4,760 and deposited into an account in August 2022. Both Miller and Lindsay then withdrew from the account one week later.
Mail theft has been an ongoing problem in Hamilton County. In March 2022, thieves took a postal worker's arrow key at gunpoint in Norwood, stealing more than $200,000 in checks from collection boxes. Blue Ash police arrested five people from out of state in May 2022 for mail theft. Police in Norwood then offered a reward in January after a different postal worker was robbed while on the job.
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