Man arrested in the Bronx over alleged mail theft case in Stony Point
An arrest has been made in an alleged mail theft case that ended in a fiery car crash in Stony Point.
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An arrest has been made in an alleged mail theft case that ended in a fiery car crash in Stony Point.
It was a moment that left Rosemary Worum completely shaken.
"My heart was pounding, pounding," says Worum.
We first introduced you to her back in early October when a car violently crashed outside her home on Mott Farm Road in Tomkins Cove.
Moments before that, police say, they got reports of the people inside that car taking mail from mailboxes in the area.
When officers went to check it out, they say the driver took off fast.
"It crashed, went on fire. The three occupants fled, we were able to get two of them," says Officer Brendan Mallon with Stony Point police.
No one was seriously hurt.
However the man accused of being behind the wheel, 19-year-old Mahamadou Sissoko, got away.
That is until this week, when police were finally able to track him down in the Bronx. He faces multiple charges including grand larceny in the fourth degree. He is due back in court Jan. 23.
“They had about 30 checks on them. They also had checks from Pennsylvania and New Jersey," says Mallon.
While officers say this is a big break in the case, they tell us this whole ordeal is part of an even larger problem they are seeing in the Hudson Valley.
It's called 'mailbox fishing' and 'check washing.'
"Usually what they do with those is wash them, they keep your banking info and then they use it to commit identity theft and other crimes," Mallon explains.
Police urge you to be cautious when sending checks in the mail. Officials encourage you to avoid it, unless you send the mail directly from the post office.
