ST. LOUIS — A Festus man admitted to stealing mail and conspiring to commit bank fraud Monday.
The defendant, Ryan Kanzler signed a plea agreement, which detailed the crimes.
Beginning no later than Oct. 14, 2020, Kanzler and a co-defendant were scheming several financial institutions, stealing mail from mailboxes at homes and businesses "on a rather large scale," the plea agreement said.
After stealing the mail, Kanzler and his partner would search for checks and personal information.
The pair altered the checks to increase the amount and made either Kanzler or his partner the payee before taking the checks to various banks in the St. Louis area.
Using the personal information from the stolen mail, Kanzler and his partner fraudulently acquired credit cards.
In one example, Kanzler used a victim's Lowe's credit card in January 2020, buying more than $1,000 worth of merchandise at various Lowe's locations in the St. Louis area.
Kanzler pleaded guilty to the below charges. Sentencing is planned for August 10.
- Conspiracy and theft of mail, which is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and/ or a fine of up to $250,000.
- Device access fraud, which is punishable by up to 15 years in prison and/ or a fine of up to $250,000.
The case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service with help from St. Louis County, Creve Coeur, Kirkwood, Arnold, Chesterfield and Sunset Hills Police Departments.
For information on mail theft, visit the USPS Mail Theft webpage.
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