Bronx money order thieves nabbed in Rockland

BY MICHAEL RICONDA

Spring Valley – Following a cooperative effort between the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Spring Valley Police Department, two thieves were arrested and charged for stealing and cashing money orders in their own names in a scheme stretching from New York City all the way up to Rockland County

Argelys Diaz, 31, and Tara Edwards, 34, both from Nelson Avenue in the Bronx, allegedly stole the money orders from postal mail depository boxes in the Bronx and New York City, altered them to give them the appearance that they were made in the suspects’ names and cashed them in Rockland at David’s Check Cashing and Rockland Check Cashing.

The alleged fraud occurred from January 2013 to March 2013, but arrests only began recently. Edwards was arrested by the Postal Inspection Service and Spring Valley Police on December 12, while Diaz was already serving time for an unrelated charge when he was arrested and arraigned on December 5.

“The public trust in the U.S. Mail is great,” U.S. Postal Service Inspector in Charge Philip R. Bartlett said in a recent press release. “When someone violates this trust by stealing from the U.S. Mail, postal inspectors will vigorously pursue them and bring them to justice for their crimes.”

Diaz and Edwards stand charged with fourth degree grand larceny, fourth degree criminal possession of stolen property and scheming to defraud in the first degree, all Class E felonies. They were also charged with criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree, a Class D Felony.