All over the Avalon Park community in east Orange County Friday, postal workers and private contractors who deliver mail were not just filling boxes, but keeping an eye out for anything unusual following a disturbing discovery Wednesday morningHundreds of pieces of mail were stuffed into storm drains in the area near Guiana Plum Drive. Some neighbors pulled out the letters and cards they could reach and contacted the sheriff’s office and postal service to investigate. Valeria Palob couldn’t believe what she was seeing.”I don’t know why they were doing it. I’m assuming they need money, so they’re looking through the mail for credit cards and money,” she said. Kim Messer thinks his missing bank debit card might be among the stolen mail.”All I know is that when I woke up they were fishing stuff out of the drain over there. In the end they had three bags,” he said. Neighbors speculate a stolen master key might have been used to collect the mail and investigators are asking for help from homeowners with security cameras, which may have captured recordings of the thief or thieves. Resident Logan Mace is checking his mail daily and his parents are checking to make sure they’re not missing an important delivery, with Mace adding, “It’s not good. It could be something that is really important and they have to wait longer to get it back. It’s not good.” The postal inspection service says it’s tracking down a “mail theft ring” in Orlando, and directs people to the “mail theft victim questionnaire” online if they believe their mail is missing. This week’s incident follows the September sentencing of Ottis McCoy Jr. for mail theft. He was sentenced in the federal Middle District of Florida court to one year of supervised release. While working as a private mail delivery contractor, McCoy was arrested in October 2024, after more than a thousand mail pieces were found scattered in the woods, in the Alafaya Trail community in east Orange County. At least one was a mail ballot, discarded by McCoy just weeks before the November general election.
ALAFAYA, Fla. —
All over the Avalon Park community in east Orange County Friday, postal workers and private contractors who deliver mail were not just filling boxes, but keeping an eye out for anything unusual following a disturbing discovery Wednesday morning
Hundreds of pieces of mail were stuffed into storm drains in the area near Guiana Plum Drive. Some neighbors pulled out the letters and cards they could reach and contacted the sheriff’s office and postal service to investigate.
Valeria Palob couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
“I don’t know why they were doing it. I’m assuming they need money, so they’re looking through the mail for credit cards and money,” she said.
Kim Messer thinks his missing bank debit card might be among the stolen mail.
“All I know is that when I woke up they were fishing stuff out of the drain over there. In the end they had three bags,” he said.
Neighbors speculate a stolen master key might have been used to collect the mail and investigators are asking for help from homeowners with security cameras, which may have captured recordings of the thief or thieves.
Resident Logan Mace is checking his mail daily and his parents are checking to make sure they’re not missing an important delivery, with Mace adding, “It’s not good. It could be something that is really important and they have to wait longer to get it back. It’s not good.”
The postal inspection service says it’s tracking down a “mail theft ring” in Orlando, and directs people to the “mail theft victim questionnaire” online if they believe their mail is missing.
This week’s incident follows the September sentencing of Ottis McCoy Jr. for mail theft.
He was sentenced in the federal Middle District of Florida court to one year of supervised release.
While working as a private mail delivery contractor, McCoy was arrested in October 2024, after more than a thousand mail pieces were found scattered in the woods, in the Alafaya Trail community in east Orange County.
At least one was a mail ballot, discarded by McCoy just weeks before the November general election.