He stole 100 pieces of mail from post office, then used victims’ identities, feds say
An Alabama man used private information he obtained from stealing over 100 pieces of mail to open bank accounts and transfer money to himself, prosecutors said.
Now he’s going to prison.
On April 26, Charles Andre Turner, from Eufaula, a city about 50 miles south of Columbus, Georgia, was sentenced to prison on accusations of stealing mail, bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Alabama.
Turner’s defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on May 2.
This is not the first time prosecutors say the 54-year-old was found guilty of stealing mail.
In 2011, Turner was previously convicted of destruction of letter boxes, theft of mail, bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. After serving almost 8 years in prison, Turner was on supervised release when he was caught opening 33 new lines of credit, which is a violation of his release, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
During their investigation, detectives said they found over 100 pieces of stolen mail including identification, credit and banking information in Turner’s home.
Between 2020 and 2021, Turner stole mail from a post office in Columbus, Georgia, before taking his loot to Alabama, court documents obtained by McClatchy News show.
Using information found in the stolen mail, Turner used another person’s stolen identity to open and access a bank account using his own address in Eufaula, prosecutors said.
In that account, Turner then deposited checks stolen from the Georgia post office that were made payable to the account owner, prosecutors said. Using the owner’s identity, Turner is then accused of withdrawing the funds for himself.
In October 2020, the man deposited a check in the amount of $7,800, court documents show.
In another instance, Turner stole over $50,000 from someone’s bank account, according to the release.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Turner also obtained someone’s credit report as well as the answers to their multiple choice security questions. In another instance, the man modified someone’s retirement account statement to be in his name instead, according to the release.
“In the aftermath of these crimes, victims are forced to deal with the damage done to their credit card and bank accounts,” U.S. Attorney Stewart said in the release. “Repairing the damage can be tedious and could take months, or even years.”
Turner was sentenced to 44 months in prison without parole followed by three years of supervised release.
This story was originally published May 2, 2022 at 3:34 PM with the headline "He stole 100 pieces of mail from post office, then used victims’ identities, feds say."
