Robbery of letter carrier has three Delray men facing charges in latest mail-theft arrests

Julius Whigham II, Palm Beach Post
·4 min read
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BOCA RATON — Police have arrested three Delray Beach men in an alleged mail-fraud scheme, the latest in a monthslong investigation into robberies of mail carriers in Palm Beach County.

A judge on Oct. 12 ordered Ecclesiaste Cleristor, Jonathen Pierre and Jimmy Jerome, all 19, to be held without bail on armed robbery charges. Police say they robbed a mail carrier in Boca Raton this past May, stealing the carrier's postal arrow key.

Authorities say those keys have become highly sought-after by thieves as they open both community mailboxes and blue mail dropboxes, giving the thieves access to steal people's checks, bank and credit-card statements.

Circuit Judge Donald Hafele assigned the three men public defenders during their hearings Thursday. As a policy, the county Public Defender's Office does not comment on open cases.

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Robberies of mail carriers rising nationally, Postal Service says

Thefts of mail carriers, like this one seen in Denver in July 2020, have increased nationwide in the past several months. Some of those incidents took place in South Florida, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said.
Thefts of mail carriers, like this one seen in Denver in July 2020, have increased nationwide in the past several months. Some of those incidents took place in South Florida, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said.

The arrests follow five last month by Delray Beach police and come as the U.S. Postal Service is reporting a rising number of mail-carrier robberies nationally.

It listed 305 such incidents from Oct. 1, 2022, to March 31, the first half of the fiscal year. It reported 412 robberies during the 2022 fiscal year, from Oct. 1, 2021, to Sept. 30, 2022.

"We have had a few instances of robberies of mail carriers for their postal keys," Blanca Alvarez, spokesperson for the Miami Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, told The Palm Beach Post in September. "The primary motive for that is because people want to steal the mail because they want to take items of value from the mail."

It is a federal offense for someone who is not a postal service employee, and who is not on duty, to possess a postal key, she said.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is the Postal Service's law enforcement arm. Alvarez said it is working with local law enforcement agencies to investigate the mail carrier robberies.

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Police traced men to mail theft through fingerprint, surveillance video

The U.S. Postal Service is taking steps to increase the security of its traditional blue mail dropboxes, like this seen in Annapolis, Maryland, in August 2020. Many of them will have electric locks.
The U.S. Postal Service is taking steps to increase the security of its traditional blue mail dropboxes, like this seen in Annapolis, Maryland, in August 2020. Many of them will have electric locks.

Last month, Delray Beach police arrested five men in connection with the mail fraud investigation. While searching a residence, police recovered more than 2,000 checks, more than 200 bank cards, a stolen postal key and five stolen firearms.

Investigators say that one man involved in that case washed stolen checks using acetone and Q-tips, and that another used a computer and a printer to create counterfeit checks.

Cleristor, Pierre and Jerome each face charges of armed robbery in connection with the Boca Raton case. According to a police report, a Postal Service carrier was attempting to retrieve mail from a blue mail dropbox along Glades Road on the afternoon of May 22 when two armed and masked men approached and stole his postal key.

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The robbers then fled in a white four-door sedan, according to the report. Police got information on the sedan from witnesses and video-camera surveillance.

Delray Beach police were surveilling a residence the following day as part of their mail-fraud investigation when they saw a white Hyundai Genesis matching the description of the vehicle used in the Boca Raton robbery.

Police attempted to stop the car, but the driver fled onto southbound Interstate 95. The car was found unoccupied in an auto-parts store parking lot on South Congress Avenue. A store employee told investigators that he rented the car to Jordan St. Val, one of the five men identified in the Delray Beach investigation.

Investigators say they recovered Cleristor's fingerprint from the interior driver's door window. The vehicle's GPS data led police to an address in Port St. Lucie. A doorbell video clip identified Cleristor, Pierre and Jerome as the occupants of the car, the arrest report said.

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Postal Service offers tips for avoiding mail theft, keeping carriers safe

Federal and local law enforcement officials urge residents to pick up delivered mail as quickly as possible and avoid leaving sensitive documents sitting in mail collection boxes overnight or over the weekend. Checks and financial documents should be brought inside the Post Office for mailing.

Mail tampering and fraud should immediately be reported to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service by submitting an online complaint at www.uspis.gov/report or calling 877-876-2455. It offers these other tips to protect your mail and to eliminate risks to letter carriers.

  • Don't drop mail into a collection box at night. Take it into a post office.

  • You can sign up for the Informed Delivery program and the Postal Service will send you an online preview of what mail and packages are coming.

  • If you are going out of town, sign up to have your mail held at the post office.

Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jwhigham@pbpost.com and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Mail theft probe: Three arrested after Florida letter carrier robbed