Police said members of a fraud ring used ingenious methods to steal thousands of dollars in checks from a southwest Miami-Dade County mailbox.
Hialeah police and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service have arrested six people suspected of being involved in a mail fraud and check counterfeiting gang.
View: Suspects' mugshots
“This is theft. This is mail fraud and bank fraud,” said Carl Zogby, of the Hialeah Police Department.
Police said the ringleader was Frank Zaraboza, and the theft was not small potatoes.
"In three months he was able to steal over $40,000," Zogby said.
Photos: Surveillance images
Zaraboza is still in jail, and Local 10 did not get an answer at the door of his girlfriend, who is also suspected of involvement, according to police.
Luis Centurion owns Corvette Dreams, a small auto shop that specializes in repairing Corvettes. He said his bank called him about a counterfeit check for $8,000.
"It was a check number that I hadn't gotten to, but I still had the blank check. They had made their own check," Centurion said.
Police said the thieves used an old trick to steal those checks. It is called the “glue trap,” and what they do is basically take a piece of cardboard and tie fishing line to it and then smear glue all over it -- usually rat glue, something strong enough to stop a mouse in its tracks.
On Friday, when the box was relatively empty, they would go ahead and put that cardboard down on the bottom and tape the fishing line to where no one could see it, but they could still reach it. Then, on Sunday, when the box was full they would pull the cardboard out, and the checks would be stuck to it.
The check thieves have co-conspirators deposit the altered or counterfeit checks into their accounts, knowing the automated teller machines have surveillance cameras, police said. That way, the check thieves could say they knew nothing about the money, and everyone was getting a piece of the action.
"If I used my account and let you compromise my account sometimes, I would get $500 or $1,000," Zogby said.
Centurion’s bank caught the phony transaction before it was paid, but he isn’t taking any chances in the future.
"I go inside the lobby and put it in the slot on the wall from now on," Centurion said.
Police believe there may be more people involved. Anyone with information is asked to call police.