Riverwest business owner warning others after mail stolen from Milwaukee Post Office box

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Someone almost got away with thousands of dollars from a local man by stealing checks he had mailed. He says it happened at a place he trusted, a post office mailbox.

The Riverwest business owner says he's had to change all his accounts and will never drop his mail off at one of the mailboxes again.

Don Krause dropped his mail into the Milwaukee Post Office box on Sunday but says the mail was never delivered. The next day he received a call from the bank.

"It got noticed by a teller at North Shore Bank who spotted that a check looked like it had been manipulated," said Don Krause.

Krause owns the Riverwest Art Bar and had important checks that needed to go out.

He believes the man was collecting mail from the dropbox and manipulating the checks. "Guy is setting up blocking mechanism or garbage bag taped to the shoot," said Krause. 

Krause said the would-be thief tried to cash the check three different times. When the suspect tried to cash the $3,000 check in Brookfield, he was arrested.

North Shore Bank spoke with us about their role in catching the thief. They say their number one priority is security. The staff is trained to recognize signs of fraud and in this instance, quick thinking helped them alert the police.

The man that tried to cash Krause's forged checks has three other open felony cases for similar crimes.