JENISON, MI — Police arrested two out-of-state men early Dec. 3 and recovered more than $50,000 in stolen business checks believed related to recent mail thefts.
Ottawa County sheriff’s deputies said that someone called 911 about 3:50 a.m. Dec. 3 to report a suspicious vehicle at a business in the 1200 block of Rosewood Street.
Deputies arrived to find a large amount of opened mail in the area. Police soon after located a vehicle they believed was involved and made a traffic stop.
They recovered numerous business checks allegedly taken from four different business mailboxes.
Both men were taken to the Ottawa County Jail.
Ahmad Malone, 29, of Waukegan, Illinois, has been charged with receiving and concealing stolen property worth more than $20,000. The other man, of Merrillville, Indiana, is expected to face the same charge.
Police are investigating whether the mail thefts are related to previous mail thefts reported across Ottawa County over the last several months.
Police said that, in the past few months, deputies have responded to nearly one hundred complaints of mail larcenies and check fraud complaints related to stolen checks.
Several people have been arrested for cashing fraudulent checks so far.
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