A crime of “check washing” has recently occurred in the Round Hill area. On Thursday, March 6, 2025, a pile of discarded open mail envelopes was discovered on Upper Lake Avenue north of Close Road. Easy Kelsey, owner of Kelsey Farm, and her farm manager, Everton Fernandez, saw what was thought to be trash on the side of the road. Upon closer inspection, they found open, outbound mailings without cancellation-marked stamps and return addresses on the envelopes from Lake Avenue, North Street, and Stamford.
Check washing is a form of mail fraud where thieves steal checks from the mail and then use chemicals to erase the original payee and amount on the check. This allows them to rewrite it for a larger sum of money and deposit it into their account, essentially “washing” away the original details to create a new, fraudulent check. To do so, outbound mail from residential mailboxes is taken before the mail carrier picks it up.
In this case, remittance envelopes were opened, but no checks were found. A package with a necklace and clothing was opened, but the items were not taken since the goal of the theft was to take checks. One resident was called to inform them of the crime, and they said the package had been put in their mailbox that very morning.
The Greenwich police quickly responded to the incident and said they were not surprised by this activity, as it has occurred in other parts of Greenwich and communities near and far. Before taking the material to headquarters for review, the police said the best way to avoid this crime is to take mailed checks directly to the post office and not leave them for postal pick up from one’s mailbox. They also cited that thieves have been known to creatively steal mail from big blue stationary boxes located throughout the community.
The Round Hill Association is sharing this isolated information to alert and remind residents that this type of incident can and does happen in the backcountry.
