A West Salem woman faces felony charges after police searched her apartment and found stolen mail belonging to over 200 people, according to the Salem Police Department.
Ashley A. Wood, 31, was charged on Tuesday in Polk County Circuit Court with identity theft, first-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, computer crime, two counts of mail theft and first-degree forgery. She also had a warrant for an earlier forgery charge in Marion County.
Wood’s arrest is part of a longtime investigation into mail theft in the Salem area. Several people have been arrested on similar charges in recent months, and one woman was sentenced in July to nine years in state prison after pleading guilty to stealing checks and mail from over 100 people and businesses in Salem.
Police searched Wood’s apartment on Northwest Orchard Heights Road and found “numerous” counterfeit Oregon identification cards, around 10 5-gallon garbage bags of stolen mail and two U.S. Postal Service mailbox lock cores, which are cylinder pieces that include key holes. They also found supplies for making fake checks, including check templates, scanners, printers and a computer, according to a Salem police affidavit.
The stolen mail belonged to “well over 200 people,” Salem police said in a news release on Tuesday.
Wood told police that she had counterfeit master mail keys in her apartment, but she did not know where they were and officers found none, the affidavit said.
She also told police that she made counterfeit checks on her computer by copying the words from an authentic check on her computer and printing it. Police found debit and credit cards and vehicle titles in Wood’s apartment that were not in her name, according to the affidavit.
Wood was arrested and booked into the Polk County Jail, where she was being held without bail as of Tuesday afternoon.
Two other people who were present when police searched the apartment were arrested on outstanding warrants.
Salem police said in the news release that they would work with the USPS to return the mail to its owners.
The agency has asked residents who have been victims of mail theft to report to police as well as the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. “Proactive measures to prevent mail theft are also encouraged through the use of notifications for standard mail and package delivery services,” Salem police said in a statement in April.
“Mail theft and fraud affect hundreds in Salem each year and we will continue to pursue justice and hold prolific offenders like these accountable,” Salem police Chief Trevor Womack said in the news release Tuesday.
Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053.
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Ardeshir Tabrizian has covered criminal justice and housing for Salem Reporter since September 2021. As an Oregon native, his award-winning watchdog journalism has traversed the state. He has done reporting for The Oregonian, Eugene Weekly and Malheur Enterprise.
