On Thursday, a guy from Charlotte entered a guilty plea to bank fraud involving over 800 pieces of pilfered mail.
Prosecutors claim that Douglas Gumbs, 38, and his accomplice preyed on neighbors in the Charlotte region, taking mail from mailboxes for over a year, from February 2022 to April 2023. He he even tore down a mailbox.
Credit cards, financial statements, tax papers, personal checks, and business and personal bank cheques were among the postal items.
Prosecutors claim that after changing the payees’ identities or amounts to match his own, Gumbs deposited the forged checks into his personal bank accounts. According to investigators, he took out the money before the victims or the banks realized the checks were counterfeit.
More than 850 pieces of stolen mail, according to investigators, were discovered to have belonged to at least ten victims in Gumbs.
Erika Jackson of Channel 9 spoke with one victim who said he was unaware that his information had been stolen until his bank notified him of potential fraud.
Residents at Camden Sedgebrook apartments are confident that the information in their mailboxes is secure. However, it appears from federal court records that Gumbs took letters out of a deposit box there.
Alexander Steinert, a resident of the complex who lives a short distance from the mail drop, said, “It’s surprising.” “I had no idea there were others out there who were like that. I’ve never heard of that, even though I watch the news.
He pledged to exercise more caution.
In an attempt to receive his mail before anyone else, he admitted, “I suppose probably look at the mail more often than I usually do.”
Gumbs admitted admission to bank fraud, a charge that has a maximum sentence of thirty years in jail and a fine of one million dollars. He remains detained pending his sentencing.
