Federal charges have been filed against five people accused of stealing mail and possessing stolen U.S. Postal Service mailbox keys in Chicago.
Their arrests were part of “Operation Broken Arrow,” an ongoing federal investigation into the thefts of postal keys and mail, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Illinois.
The charges were unsealed days after the Sun-Times published stories outlining the rise of “check washing” in Chicago.
The stolen mail scheme involves criminals stealing mailbox keys from letter carriers, burglarizing mailboxes, erasing ink from checks and cashing them under other names.
Over 1,000 checks from Illinois have been stolen and posted for sale in dark corners of the internet since December, according to one researcher.
The indictments announced Monday showed that five people were charged in July with unlawful possession of a U.S. Postal Service key: Savannah S. Shandor, 29; Thaddeus J. Harper, 42; Shaun A. White, 25; and Jordan J. McPhearson, 31, all of Chicago; and Joseph T. Solomon, 37, of Norridge.
Shandor, Solomon and Harper also were charged with stealing mail.
The indictments contained no details beyond saying the crimes were committed last fall and spring.
Unlawful possession of a U.S. Postal Service key is punishable by up to 10 years in federal prison. Theft of mail carries a maximum sentence of five years.
In a statement, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service addressed complaints that the agency hasn’t been forthcoming with details of its plan to address the rise in check washing.
“I can understand any frustrations shared by the public when our agency cannot directly comment on ongoing investigations or what is being done to hold criminal suspects accountable for their actions,” a spokesman for the inspection service’s Chicago office said in an email. “I hope it is evident how deeply we commit to seeking justice for everyone in our community who has been victimized, in one sense or another, at the hands of mail thieves.”
