Man held on accusations of mail, identity thefts around Chicago
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A man is now behind bars after being arrested at least four times – on accusations of stealing mail and people's identities all over Chicago.
U.S. postal inspectors said Jonathan Minter, 37, was spotted on surveillance video using what appears to be a postal master key to open up an entire set of mailboxes in a building.
"It's good to hear that he's locked up," said William Debes.
Minter was identified as the suspect responsible for numerous apartment and condo building mail thefts between 2022 and 2024. Among the locations were a building in the 5700 block of North Winthrop Avenue in Edgewater, and in the 3800 block of North Fremont Street in Lakeview - where Debes lives.
He said his apartment building was targeted on Sept. 7 of last year.
"Our neighbors came to our door and asked us if we were the ones who knew anything about the mail, you know, so it kind of struck us," Debes said. "We would never do anything like that."
Packages and letters alike were taken, Debes said.
"It looked like someone had their like Amazon Prime boxes taken, and like physical mail," Debes said.
A joint investigation by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Chicago Police led to Minter's arrest on Tuesday of this week. He had three warrants for his arrest after not showing up for court appearances.
"That's why he is held, right now, today, on these cases - with no bond on each one of them," said CBS 2 Legal Analyst Irv Miller.
Law enforcement said Minter is responsible for burglaries, mail theft, identity theft, and taking over people's accounts. Most of his victims were senior citizens, authorities said.
Right now, Minter has 12 felony cases before three different judges.
"If he is convicted of more than one of these, he's actually looking at consecutive sentencing on each one of these cases," said Miller, "and with 12 cases pending, that could be a lot of time."
Each felony charge against Minter is punishable by up to three to seven years behind bars.
