Chicago area business says stolen checks are costing it thousands
ROMEOVILLE, Ill. (CBS) -- CBS 2 has reported before on complaints from Chicago residents dealing with mail issues and delays.
Now, a Romeoville business says stolen mail and missing deliveries have cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Apex Industrial Automation has extensive records of checks were supposed to be coming to the company, but never made it. One of the checks was for a sum of more than $71,000.
There has also been a problem with checks being mailed out by the company.
"We used to print our checks and mail them," said Cheryl Sansosti with Apex Industrial.
The automotive parts company was forced to switch it up – when in 2022, she Sansosti 52 checks worth a combined $105,993.15 vanished in the mail.
"I started getting calls from my vendors saying, 'You haven't paid us,'" Sansosti said. "I'm like, 'Yes we did - here's the check number,' only to find out that not one of the 52 checks ever made it to one of our vendors."
Yet all the checks were cashed – after a United States Postal Service worker walked into the Romeoville office and collected the mail from a front desk tray.
"It's the most secure way to hand off what we're hoping the United States Post Office will deliver," Sansosti said.
It is unclear if any of the 52 checks every made it to the Romeoville Post Office after they were collected. But what is clear is that that the checks coming from the post office are now being intercepted well before they get to Apex.
"Those checks are being stolen now," said Sansosti.
Two years after losing $105,000 in outgoing checks, Apex said the vast majority of payments from vendors are vanishing too.
"So they're cashing the checks that are being sent for us to deposit, and now they're being cashed just the same way as those others ones were being cashed," Sansosti said.
The company has two years of records piling up. Apex can't understand why the USPS inspectors can't figure it out, telling Sansosti, "You know, we're trying to snag this person."
Two years later, Sansosti said whoever is behind the check fraud ring at the post office has stolen just under $500,000.
If the culprits aren't caught, the fraud scheme has the potential to take down both Apex itself and the vendors who are owed money that was stolen.
Sansosti said if her business is being used as a base to intercept checks, it is likely not alone.
"And how many other businesses in Romeoville area, serviced by that postal office?" she said.
Sansosti said she can't continue to take the hit.
"I just want a resolution," she said.
