Dude, Where’s My Mail?
If today had a theme, it would be ‘driving.’ We (and by ‘we’ I mean myself and my photographer, Mitch) spent three plus hours in the car today just to shoot this story. I like to think it came together all right, but that’s for you to decide.
As it turns out, thieves aren’t just targeting your home anymore; they’re now also targeting your mailbox. (In case you couldn’t tell, I stole that from one of my teases.) In several central Ohio counties recently, people have had their mail stolen. In some cases it’s the mail that has been left by the letter carrier. In other cases, is the mail the letter carrier hasn’t yet picked up. According to police, one or several people are stealing the checks people are writing to companies to pay their bills. The suspects are altering the names on the checks, adding their own name and then cashing them at several banks. (If the story sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same story we shot last week, but couldn’t air because the video was deleted before we had a chance to put the story together… we had much better luck today!)
We started off by driving one hour or so to Rockbridge in Hocking County to interview a woman who says her mail had been stolen as well as opened. She gave us a good perspective for this story. She essentially feels that her privacy was violated by the fact that someone had opened and read her personal mail. (I wish we can across people like her every day – so friendly!)
After conducting the interview, getting some video outside her home and shooting a couple teases, we then drove another hour to Chillicothe. (Why, you ask?) The reason we headed there is because police had recently identified two persons of interest who may be responsible for this rash of mail thefts. The first place we headed was to the police department where some police reports had been left for me to pick up. After I had those documents, we went to a couple of the banks where the persons of interest allegedly cashed these stolen checks. (You gotta have video to cover your story, right?)
After driving all around town, we jumped back in the car and began the one hour trip back to Columbus. (Three hours of driving - thankfully that doesn’t happen on a daily basis.)
Once back at the station, I wrote the story, online article and now, my blog. Another day, another dollar, another date with my computer to type my thoughts for you to read.
Tomorrow should be interesting. I’ll be at Port Columbus covering President Obama’s arrival to the capital city. Be sure to tune in at 11 and check it out!
Until then…
Posted by Tom Brockman on 08/16 at 08:08 PM-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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