Alabama man just out of prison stole Columbus mail for identity theft, feds say
A Eufaula, Alabama, man who stole mail from a Columbus post office to acquire residents’ personal financial information has been sentenced to federal prison.
Authorities said Charles Andre Turner, 54, was on supervised release from an earlier conviction for similar offenses when his probation officer discovered he had opened 33 new lines of credit.
Agents searching Turner’s home on May 10, 2021, found more than 100 pieces of stolen mail along with notes related to victims’ identities and credit or banking information.
The ensuing investigation revealed Turner stole mail from Columbus post offices from October 2020 to May 2021, took it to Eufaula and used information from that mail to get credit cards, open bank accounts, and make financial transactions for his own benefit, officials said.
“Turner even obtained a victim’s Experian credit report and began noting the answers to the victim’s multiple choice security questions, and he altered another victim’s retirement account statement to make his own name appear on it rather than the victim’s,” federal prosecutors wrote in a news release.
“In one example, Turner used a victim’s identity to open a bank account, then deposited another victim’s credit card convenience checks into the account. In yet another extreme example, Turner was able to steal over $50,000 from a single victim’s bank account,” they added.
Turner was sentenced Monday to 44 months in prison for mail theft, bank fraud, and aggravated identity theft, according to U.S Attorney Sandra J. Stewart. He had pleaded guilty on Jan. 6.
Turner in 2011 also was convicted for destroying mailboxes and stealing mail, plus bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, authorities said.
This story was originally published April 29, 2022 at 4:34 PM.