A detective contacted me today. He alleged that I have been giving out letters with bags of candy attached. The letters stated, verbatim "
Hi, my name is Michael and I’m a college student at UW-Milwaukee.
I support myself through student loans and by delivering the newspaper every day.
I just wanted to wish you and your family a very Merry Holiday Season!!! It doesn’t matter
whether you celebrate Christmas or any other holiday, the idea is to be with your
loved ones and to help others. So, I hope this small gift will bring a smile to your face!
Please wish your family a “Merry Christmas” or “Happy anything else” from me!
You may respond to:
Michael
P.O. Box
Franklin, WI 53132
The detective alleges that I am impersonating the actual newspaper carrier and and solicting money from the people who I allegedly delivered the letters to. I am from Milwaukee Wisconsin and this was done throughout Milwaukee county and Waukesha County. Is this a crime? What statues should i be looking under? and what are the elements? I did not admit wrong doing but was told I might be charged in the future. He also said he has been holding my mail from the PO Box? How can I get the hold lifted? There will probably be over $10,000 in mail. But I asked the Post office today and they said there was no hold at the franklin PO Box? Could it be held at a sorting facility? What should I do? Thanks
Police tend not to call people up and warn them that they may be committing a crime that they may be arrested for at some future date. Also, if you’re doing what he said, there’s no solicitation. You’re just giving away candy to total strangers, which is always a good idea and a definite resume-builder. If you’re not doing what he said, there’s still no solicitation, but he sucks at his job. Being in proximity to cops who suck at their job is problematic at best.
well the detective alleges i was solicting for a tip, but you can read the letter. legally, i’m asking, and I don’t believe it would legal be construed as soliciting or misrepresentation. i do make my living delivering newspapers. how can i find out if the police are really holding my mail?
And for the love of fuck, stop posting. If the cops are really involved, they know how to use Google, and this board is heavily indexed by Google. You are not helping your situation.
See that? Right there? If this goes to trial, the cops will quote you as saying “I’m not concerned with right and wrong.” The second sentence isn’t going to help enough to make you look better.
Stop. Posting. And if it gets to that point, tell your lawyer about your posts here.
No idea if the “detective” is legit or not. But if you gave these away to houses on a paper route, the letter does sound like you are the carrier there, and therefore you may have committed an illegal act.
If you haven’t, at very least whatcha gonna do when the actual carrier comes by to kick your ass for receiveing the Christmas tip they were expecting?
I for one have no idea who the person is that delivers my paper at 5am but if I received your letter I’d of thought you were him!
The OP says he delivered the letters to people. Did he just hang them on door knobs and such?
And this detective. Did he say what agency he was with? Did he give his name and unit number? Did he give the OP a business card? Did he give an IR# (incident report number). This is all on par for interviewing someone whether they are a suspect, victim, or witness.
The cops are not holding your mail. All they can do is have the post office make a copy of the envelope so they can check on whoever is mailing to you. And they have to have a court order to do that. Ms Hook worked for the post office for 30 years, 17 as a supervisor/station manager, and has told me this several times.
So really what you’re asking is how you can skirt the law and still receive the money you scammed people for, as well as hosing over their actual news carrier. What holiday spirit.
It’s called a “mail cover” and a warrant or court order is not needed. The “too” and “from” areas of envelopes and packages are not protected. It’s a traffic analysis of the mail a subject receives and sends. But once that info is recorder the mail continues to it’s destination.Without a warrant or court order the mail cannot be permanently held nor opened. And no agency is going to go through all that for a simple fraud case.
Why does the OP think there would be over 10K in his PO Box/
How did this “detective” get ahold of the OP? Was there a phone number on those letters? Did he run the name through DOT and get a street address?
Whether or not it’s a crime depends on the particulars of your jurisdiction, I suppose. But if I got your letter & candy, I would assume you were the poor bastard that gets up at 3:30am to get me and the rest of the neighborhood our daily papers.
And most likely I would have sent you a check, then been irked when I found out you weren’t who I thought you were.