A 20-year-old accused of depositing a stolen check was arrested last week after a resident called police reporting that a card sent to a relative was found on the side of the road, while the check that was enclosed was gone.
The arrest stems from what was initially reported as a 911 hang-up that prompted officers to respond to a residence on Main Street in Rockville shortly after 9 a.m. on Aug. 13, according to the probable cause statement filed in support of the arrest.
Responding units arrived to find an elderly man who had called emergency dispatch to report a mail theft. The caller told police he had mailed a card with a $100 check enclosed to a relative on July 22, and a few days later they found the card and the opened envelope on the side of the road in Rockville.
“The envelope contained the card but did not contain the check,” the officer noted in the report.
The complainant went on to tell investigators when he checked with the bank to see if the check had cleared, he allegedly learned the check had been cashed using a mobile application on July 23, one day after the card was mailed. The caller also learned the signature on the check was illegible, other than the first name “Xander,” and the first and last letter of the surname, which started with a “B” and ended with a “D,” according to the report.
The bank was unable to accurately determine the last name “due to the penmanship,” the report states.
The complainant reached out to the post office in Springdale and spoke to a supervisor who said there was a driver with the first name of “Xander.” When officers responded to the post office they located the suspect, later identified as 20-year-old Xander Blaine Bennefeld, of Cedar City, which is when officers realized the suspect’s last name matched the limited information provided by the bank.
While speaking with police, the suspect reportedly told officers he was a contract worker who was tasked with picking up and delivering mail for the Springdale Post Office. When asked, the report alleges, the suspect reportedly said he was not aware of any cards being opened.
He also denied cashing a $100 check and repeatedly told officers he never opened any mail. When he was asked how the bank would have had his first name and a partial last name, the officer states that Bennefeld said he did not know. The suspect’s mobile bank statement, however, revealed a $100 deposit made to the suspect’s account using a mobile application on July 23, which matched the information provided by the victim’s bank.
When the officer pointed out the deposit, the suspect denied making any such transaction, and said he had no idea where the transaction could have come from, adding he was the only one authorized to access the account when the officer inquired further.
He later said a family member sometimes deposits money in his account, but officers were unable to find any other deposits that matched the amount and date of the mobile deposit of the check.
Investigators also learned that Bennefeld was working on the day the card was mailed and the following day, when the mobile deposit was made — dates that were later confirmed by a supervisor at the post office who said the suspect “would have been responsible for mail pick up on those days.”
It should be noted, the officer wrote, that Bennefeld “was unable to articulate a reason why his name would have been on a check that was not given to him.”
A copy of the canceled check was provided to police and showed the suspect’s first and last name written in different handwriting. Later that afternoon, the suspect was arrested and transported to jail facing third-degree felony forgery and mail theft.
St. George News reached out to Springdale Police Officer Britt Ballard, who said the suspect was employed as a contracted employee who delivered mail from one post office to another, since Springdale, Rockville and Virgin, among other small towns, do not have mail carriers that deliver to residential mail boxes. Instead, he said, they deliver to the post office where the mail is sorted into post office boxes for customer pickup, as is outgoing mail which is dropped off at the post office for delivery.
He went on to say the suspect was a part-time employee who worked on the days in question, and while the card was sent from the post office Springdale, it is still unclear how the evidence ended up in Rockville.
Following the arrest, bail was set at $2,500 and on Aug. 19, Bennefeld was formally charged with the two felony counts and he is scheduled to make an initial appearance in 5th District Court in St. George on Friday.
According to the U.S. Postal Service, private individuals and firms, now commonly referred to as contractors have been transporting mail between postal facilities for more than 120 years. Since 1990, the the number of delivery points served by contracted carriers has increased from 1,8 million to just under 2.7 million, and while contracted suppliers are not employees of the postal service, these independent contractors provide delivery service on specific routes not serviced by city or rural carriers.
Contracted postal applicants must have a clean driving record, a clean drug test and clear a background check, among other requirements to be employed by one of many subcontracting agencies that supply these carriers.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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