Check fraud spikes: Chicago sees jump in checks stolen from mailboxes, ‘washed’ and cashed for thousands of dollars

Francis Laurin and his wife, Mildred Laurin, were victims of a check-washing scam. (Pat Nabong/Sun-Times)

Midge Laurin dropped a check in a U.S. Postal Service mailbox on Central Avenue near her Southwest Side home in September — a $30 contribution to her cousin’s daughter’s school in Crystal Lake.

Three days later, she and her husband logged onto their bank account and found the check had been stolen, rewritten and cashed to a “Crystal E. Hunter” for $9,475.81.