Kettering police say they are unsure if the Saturday arrests are related to Sept. 22 armed robberies in which postal carriers in Dayton and Trotwood were told to hand over their keys to blue mailboxes.
“It is not ruled out that the incidents could be related,” KPD Patrolman and spokesman Tyler Johnson said in an email. “The incident is still under investigation and that will be addressed as needed.”
The first armed robbery of a postal worker took place in the 2900 block of Melbourne Avenue in Dayton and the second took place in the 400 block of Malden Avenue in Trotwood. Officials said that no mail carriers were injured in the incidents.
Last month’s crimes against postal carriers are among of a series of mail-related thefts in Dayton and several surrounding communities, part of a surge across the U.S., officials said.
The pair of armed robberies led to a reward of up to $50,000 being offered the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
The postal service did not respond to requests Monday morning for comment.
Arrested in Kettering early Saturday morning on felony receiving stolen property charges were: Cameron J. Harnish, 20, of Farnham Road in Dayton; Terell D. Rose, 21, of Stop Eight Road in Harrison Twp.; and a 15-year-old Dayton male, a police report states.
The two adults were taken to the Kettering jail and the teen to the Montgomery County Juvenile Detention Center, records show. They were released on their own recognizance and have yet to appear in court on the charges, Johnson said.
A reported 17-fold nationwide increase in checks stolen from the U.S. mail being posted for sale online has occurred as officials representing postal service and police say they are hamstrung in arresting perpetrators, a recent Dayton Daily News investigation found.
The Kettering arrests came after officers stopped a 2011 Chevrolet Malibu after it left the lot of the Forrer post office shortly after midnight Saturday, documents show.
The car’s registration was fictitious, and after an investigation, several pieces of mail suspected of being stolen were recovered, police records show.
Six items of mail/cash were seized in the arrests, Johnson said.
Harnish said the car was recently returned to him after being repaired following a Sept. 23 wreck. He pulled into the post office to reverse course after missing a turn street, according to the police report. Rose said he did not know Harnish well and had no knowledge of the mail, the report states.
Nearly $400 was taken as evidence in the arrests, according to the incident report. The three arrested are also listed as suspects on a report to a response nearly two hours later at the Stroop post office.
An officer responding to the Stroop site said “I found one of the blue mailboxes to be unsecure. The door was pushed closed however it was not locked,” the police report states.
The officer was able to open the mailbox and check its contents.
“I observed the cart with a canvas like bag affixed to the frame … Inside the cart were two white (USPS) tote bags. There was no mail inside the cart or the totes. There was no mail … on the ground inside the mailbox either,” according to the report.
Prior to the Sept. 22 robberies, officials in the Dayton region reported that they are investigating a rash of mail-related crime. Items were stolen from at least seven different post office mailboxes in Beavercreek, Dayton, Kettering and the Centerville/Washington Twp. area.
In Kettering and Riverside, nearly $75,000 in stolen checks were cashed by parties they were not issued to, police said.
