RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — A Fayetteville man is sentenced to more than a decade in prison after he was discovered unlawfully opening U.S. Postal Service collection boxes.
Darrell Alan Thompson, age 35, was sentenced to 15 years and five years of supervised release for conspiracy to commit bank fraud and possession of firearm by felon. He was also ordered to pay restitution to the impacted financial institutions.
According to court documents and other information presented in court, the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Raleigh Police Department initiated the investigation after receiving a large number of mail theft and check fraud reports in Wake County.
It was discovered that a Postal Service “arrow key” was being unlawfully used to access and steal mail from official collection boxes located outside of government post offices throughout Wake County. Prosecutors said perpetrators targeted checks that had been placed in the mail by postal customers. Those checks would then be altered by changing the payee information, depositing the checks into bank accounts, and withdrawing the proceeds at local ATMs.