EAST HARLEM — The latest victim in a rash of check thefts from East Harlem mailboxes has had his $1,800 rent payment stolen, the NYPD said.
The 24-year-old man put the check in a sealed, stamped envelope in a box at East 117th Street and Lexington Avenue to send to his landlord on Nov. 2, police said.
A month later, his bank told him the face of the check had been altered and the check cashed, though the amount stayed the same.
The victim filed a police report on Dec. 8.
This is the ninth report filed in the 25th Precinct regarding check thefts from mailboxes in the neighborhood since mid-August. More than $80,000 has been stolen.
Recently, a 60-year-old resident mailed a $750 Western Union money order on Sept. 18 from a mailbox on East 116th Street and First Avenue. The woman was later told her landlord had not received it and discovered it had apparently been stolen and altered, according to a police report filed Dec. 1.
Detectives at the NYPD's 25th Precinct are investigating the series of thefts as a pattern and have not yet identified a suspect.
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