Milwaukee Man Gets Probation in Scheme to Steal Checks From Wauwatosa City Hall Mailbox

A Milwaukee man has been sentenced to probation for his role in a money laundering scheme built on checks stolen from a mailbox outside Wauwatosa City Hall.

Mario Casey, 29, was first charged with five felonies. According to court records, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and to forgery, and the remaining three charges were dismissed under a plea agreement.

Milwaukee County Judge Jay Pucek initially imposed a prison sentence on Casey for the forgery count, then stayed it and ordered three years of probation instead. For money laundering, Casey was sentenced to time served in the Milwaukee County Community Reintegration Center.

The case began when Wauwatosa's city assessor reported that several pieces of mail containing checks had been taken from a U.S. Postal Service mailbox outside City Hall. A criminal complaint says the suspect's red Chrysler was spotted near the mailbox on nine occasions, eight of them in March, between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. One person would step out of the driver's door, sometimes with a passenger, open the box with a mail key and take the contents. Police determined that more than $100,000 was stolen.

Wauwatosa police set up an operation to make an arrest on April 4. Shortly after 3 a.m., the red Chrysler pulled into the City Hall parking lot and stopped at the mailbox. Casey was alone in the car and was arrested, and an officer found the mailbox key in his jacket pocket.

A detective interviewed Casey, and court filings said his lies were "so poor" that the detective had a hard time following him. The complaint says Casey first claimed he was there to put something in the mailbox, not to steal, and that he had found the key at Mayfair Mall and carried it "for whatever reason."

Prosecutors said that after the detective explained the car had been captured on video during earlier thefts, and that the arrest was not random, Casey admitted stealing from the City Hall mailbox. He also said he took mail from another mailbox at 63rd and Bluemound, though "ain't nothing ever be in there."

Court filings say Casey sent photographs of the checks through a messenger app to a person he knew as "Oxy." He said Oxy paid him $100 for each check and that he made a few thousand dollars.

According to the complaint, Casey estimated he had stolen more than 800 pieces of mail over three to four months. He said that when he found items such as a death certificate or birthday card, he resealed the envelope and put it back because "he would feel bad." He also described himself as "not a bad person" who tried to "be careful with people's information and hard-earned money."

Information for this report came from the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office, Wisconsin Circuit Court records and prior FOX6 News coverage.