‘This is crazy;’ 90-year-old woman wants justice after falling victim to mail theft

TROTWOOD — A local woman used to mail her checks at USPS drop-off boxes, but not after what she went through last year.

This time of year people like 90-year-old Josie Bedell are busy getting ready for the holidays.

If you are thinking about mailing gifts, Bedell said be careful.

“Never had a problem,” Bedell said.

Until last year that is.

She wrote a check out to Spectrum to pay her bill of almost $80.

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But after she mailed it she said someone stole it, changed the amount, and tried to cash it for more than $6,000.

“I went into my account because I always check my account monthly and here this check for Spectrum was $6,000,” Bedell said.

She called her bank who told her they didn’t cash it because she didn’t have the funds in her account.

But if she did, that money would have been gone.

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“I called the police. I showed it to them. They said, ‘well did they get any money?’ I said ‘no’ they said ‘well there’s no point in trying to do anything about it,’” she said.

But she wants the person who did this to be prosecuted.

That isn’t the only thing she’s wishing for.

“Just gotta be more respect in this world,” she said.

Local lawmakers in Washington D.C. have called for action regarding mail thefts.

They said over the past three years assaults against postal employees delivering mail have increased over 230 percent.

Wednesday 10 senators, including Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, introduced the “Postal Reform Act.”

Brown said the new legislation would make sure postal police officers would protect postal employees outside of physical properties.

That’s something that stopped in 2020

For more tips on how to avoid mail theft visit here.

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