Checks that Lakewood Ranch residents thought were safely in the mail have been turning up in a very different form, according to victims in the master-planned community east of Bradenton. Neighbors say payments dropped in neighborhood boxes vanished, then resurfaced as chemically “washed” checks with altered amounts and new payees, leaving families scrambling to recover money and figure out where along the route the thefts occurred. Local deputies and federal postal investigators are now tracking what appears to be a pattern across multiple subdivisions.
The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Postal Service are actively digging into a string of check-washing cases in Lakewood Ranch, as reported by WTSP. According to local coverage, banks started flagging suspicious deposits after spotting altered checks, and the Postal Service has assigned an inspector to focus on the area. Investigators are keeping a tight lid on specifics while they piece together where the mail was intercepted and how far the scheme stretches.
Federal warnings and the local probe
The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has already been sounding the alarm that check fraud tied to mail theft is climbing nationwide. Federal officials note that old-school check washing remains a go-to tactic for criminals who steal envelopes from the mail then chemically strip and rewrite them. IC3 outlines how stolen checks are altered and points to a jump in suspicious activity reports involving check fraud in recent years. Investigators recommend using indoor post office mail slots, signing up for USPS Informed Delivery and reporting suspected mail theft directly to postal inspectors so they can track patterns.
Legal consequences…