MAYES COUNTY, Okla. — Mail thief strikes elderly woman’s mailbox and steals money.
Oreta Castillo put her telephone payment in her mailbox on a county road in Mayes County and flipped the flag up just like she does every month.
She said her bank contacted her several weeks later and said her account was overdrawn. The number of the check that caused the issue was the same check Castillo used to pay her telephone bill.
The 82-year-old said, “The telephone bill was just $62. The check was made out for $369 at Broken Arrow Walmart store. I don’t even know where Broken Arrow Walmart store is. I’ve never been there my life.”The telephone company never received her payment. Castillo filed a police report and contacted her bank, who refunded her money.She said, “They tell me there is a way that they can erase everything and it’ll look just like a fresh check.”
When she went to her home Walmart to buy groceries, the store couldn’t process Castillo’s check because the store manager said she had a felony against her because she hadn’t paid the last bill for $369 at the Walmart in Broken Arrow.Castillo said she is not the only victim, adding, “When I went to Walmart to ask about all of this, they told me they had three people that week that had tried to pull things on them.”
She also said her son has also had mail stolen down the road.
Not only is stealing someone else’s mail a federal offense, it causes people like the elderly widow unnecessary stress.
She said, “It shouldn’t be that way. It’s supposed to be where our mailboxes are our’s. It’s a private thing.” Castillo is now hopeful the criminal is caught, adding with a chuckle, “I could take them out real easy if I can get a hold of them.”
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