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A Chicago man who twice landed in police custody this 12 months with contraband like counterfeit postal keys, stolen mail, bank cards, and methamphetamine has been sentenced to a few concurrent four-year jail phrases after pleading responsible to housebreaking expenses.
Andrew Trotter, 45, entered the pleas earlier than Decide Aleksandra Gillespie, in circumstances that started with a Logan Sq. arrest in July, a prolonged interval throughout which he disappeared from court docket, and a September arrest that featured an almost equivalent set of allegations.
The September case additionally featured one new element. By the point investigators tracked him down once more, Trotter had added a tattoo of the phrase “Belief” throughout his brow.
In July, prosecutors mentioned officers in Logan Sq. discovered him carrying a counterfeit postal grasp key, stolen mail addressed to a number of folks, greater than 30 credit score and debit playing cards, fraudulent IDs, housebreaking instruments, and about two thousand 600 {dollars} price of suspected meth.
Police additionally recovered a purse containing screwdrivers and Allen wrenches, instruments generally utilized in housebreaking, together with U-Haul keys, extra IDs, and a CTA worker badge that didn’t belong to him. Regardless of the scope of the allegations, he was launched to await trial as a result of the costs weren’t detainable beneath Illinois legislation.
He promptly stopped showing in court docket and remained on the unfastened till September. That’s when postal inspectors working with Chicago police arrested Trotter once more within the 2400 block of North Lawndale. Authorities mentioned he was carrying — await it — two counterfeit USPS grasp keys, suspected methamphetamine, a number of stolen debit and bank cards, and a stolen passport.
These grasp keys, recognized contained in the postal service as arrow keys, open banks of residential mailboxes and assortment packing containers throughout town. The mixture of counterfeit keys and stolen mail has been on the heart of an ongoing spike in monetary and id theft circumstances tied to Chicago’s Northwest Facet.
Postal inspectors mentioned Trotter was suspected of a number of mail thefts on the Northwest Facet earlier within the 12 months.
Trotter’s sentence will likely be diminished to 2 years with good habits. He’s at present slated to be launched on September 10, 2027.
Counterfeit and stolen arrow keys are useful on the black market as a result of one key can unlock dozens of mailboxes without delay, permitting thieves to gather checks, bank cards, financial institution statements, tax paperwork, and different monetary data with minimal effort. Some offenders act alone whereas others function inside bigger organized networks that launder cash, alter checks, and visitors private knowledge.
Though mail theft is a federal offense, most circumstances are dealt with by state courts until prosecutors can hyperlink a suspect to a significant ring or large-scale monetary loss.
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