Erik Magana, 34, stole mail from wealthy people in North and South Carolina.
On January 14, 2020 he was sentenced to 42 months in prison.
Erik pleaded guilty on April 2, 2019, to mail theft and aggravated identity theft.
From at least 2016 until November 2018, Erik routinely stole mail from residential mailboxes in wealthy neighborhoods in North and South Carolina. Erik typically targeted affluent neighborhoods, and committed the theft in the middle of the night or pre-dawn to avoid detection.
Among the pieces of mail Erik stole were personal and business checks and credit cards, which he used to commit bank fraud and identity theft. Erik dumped some of the stolen mail at various locations in Charlotte, NC but hoarded the majority of it in his apartment.
After cataloging the mail recovered over the course of the investigation, it was determined that Erik had stolen mail from at least 1,300 victims.
Due to the unsanitary conditions in Erik’s apartment, some of the recovered mail could not be properly identified or delivered to the intended recipients.
