Trio accused of 'fishing' thousands of checks worth $4.8M out of various Suffolk County postal boxes
They are accused of using device crafted with a sticky glue trap to the end of a belt to extract the mail out of the boxes.
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Three people are facing felony grand larceny charges for their alleged involvement in an large-scale mail theft scheme that targeted U.S. Postal Service collection boxes throughout Suffolk County.
Suffolk County prosecutors say 32-year-old Nicholas Delvillar, of the Bronx, 27-year-old Franklin Mercedes, of the Bronx, and 24-year-old Jhosua Peralta, of Queens, are accused of using a makeshift "fishing" device to steal over 6,750 checks totaling in worth to be $4.8 million.
Investigators say the trio traveled from the Bronx to Suffolk County on June 3 to steal mail from various collection boxes across Suffolk County.
They are accused of using device crafted with a sticky glue trap to the end of a belt to extract the mail out of the boxes. Prosecutors say many of those allegedly stolen checks were later sold on social media.
A search warrant was executed and police allegedly found the thousands of checks, a loaded 9 mm firearm and currency.
Delvillar and Peralta were arraigned on June 5 on felony grand larceny charges, and Mercedes was arraigned on the same charges on June 10.
Since the charged are non-bail eligible, they were placed on supervised release with GPS monitoring during the pendency of the case.
Mail theft for the intent of taking checks and other items of value is an ongoing nationwide problem, prosecutors say.
Anyone who believes their mail was stolen is asked to call police, as well as the Postal Inspectors at 877-876-2455.
