On Tuesday morning, July 23, a resident near Killian Hill and Five Forks Trickum noticed her mailbox, which she'd just put outgoing mail into, had its door open. She went out to shut it and saw that the mail was gone. Driving around on her street, she noticed several mailboxes with their flags up, doors open, and no mail inside.
People who had checks stolen that day, I was informed, may have their checking accounts hijacked by the thieves. At least 3 residents stopped payment on their checks and closed their checking accounts.
Other residents that were just off the main road (the only place open mailboxes were seen) are monitoring their accounts several times a day for unusual activity, while they verify that their bills reached their destinations. At least one report from a side street resident is that check payments did make it to the right place, so it's possible that only the main street was targeted.
The thieves moved very quickly, and may have driven through the neighborhood from one main road to another. It's unknown at this time whether this is an identity theft ring or a crime of opportunity.
We've since learned that Gwinnett Police got another report of the same crime Tuesday morning at about the same time at a neighboring subdivision. You can read a lot more about this at the Check Fraud Prevention page at http://www.ckfraud.org/ckfraud.html. Mail theft can be reported to Gwinnett County police (770-513-5700) and the US Postal Inspector at https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/forms/mlntrcvd.aspx
This is a tough crime to watch out for. Neighbors who see suspicious activity need to inform others nearby quickly before they find out the hard way that checks have been stolen and money may be stolen later.
