FRESNO - On Friday morning after a four month investigation, Justin Deger of Fresno was arrested for felony identity theft and mail theft. Deger came on the Fresno Police Department's Northwest District Investigation Unit radar after several arrests for burglary. Each time during those arrests, Deger was found in possession of large amounts of mail not belonging to him.
Northwest Investigation Unit detectives and staff at the district station began receiving information from the public regarding a silver Ford Mustang being captured on Ring video surveillance system cameras. The vehicle was either seen driving through neighborhoods in the early morning hours or seen stopped in front of mailboxes removing mail. Information was provided via the Nextdoor.com social media site regarding the same suspicious vehicle.
Various investigative methods lead detectives to Deger again, who owned a silver Ford Mustang.
On 3-28-19, a search warrant was done at Deger’s residence where approximately 2,000 pieces of mail were found from at least 500 victims in the Fresno County area. Mail containing credit/ bank cards, banking information, DMV documents and other mail were recovered.
This investigation would never have been successful without the information and video provided by the citizens of Fresno.
Although mail theft may not seem to be that serious of a crime, mail theft leads to identity theft and fraud which can wreak havoc on the finances and credit of those who become victims of identity theft and fraud, as well as the headache/stress and time expended to repair ones finances and credit.
The photographs of the extraordinary amount of mail found in trashcans and various rooms during the search warrant show the sheer scale of mail one person was able to amass. In turn, you can imagine the volume of personal information that was available to be used to steal identities and commit fraud.
Most people are rarely aware their mail has been stolen until they become victims of some type of identity theft/ fraud. The U. S. Postal Service offers a free service called Informed Delivery that you can sign up for on the Postal Service web site. Once you register, when your mail is processed at the post office and photographed, you will receive an email advising what mail you will be receiving that day with a photograph of the mail. This tool is helpful to let you know you have mail being delivered. If it is not received, it would alert you that you may have become a victim of mail theft.
Lastly, the Fresno Police Department asks that you report mail theft by calling our non-emergency number at 621-7000. As well please report all crimes, if you do not report criminal activity the police department will not be aware of the activity. Although the impression may be that nothing is being done, many times as in this case the police cannot advertise what they are doing as to not alert criminals of what they are doing.
As well, you can see in this case it took four months to bring this investigation to an arrest. Which the arrest is not the end regarding this case. Months of continued investigation is to come as you can see in the photographs the volume of mail to be sorted and victim’s to be contacted.
