ST. LOUIS • A North Carolina man who was arrested in Creve Coeur in the midst of a multi-state mail theft and check fraud spree was sentenced Wednesday to 70 months in federal prison, the U.S. attorney's office said.
Jordan Gilmore, 25, of Wade, N.C., recruited two people from Kentucky to join him on the trip to Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Colorado and other states, prosecutors said.
The group would steal mail, then alter checks that they found and try to cash them, prosecutors said.
Creve Coeur police were tipped by a local bank, and stopped a vehicle containing Gilmore and his recruits.
They spotted a stack of money on the floorboard and later found stolen mail and $12,000 in the car and $4,000 in the shoe of one of the recruits, Joseph Coan, prosecutors said.
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The mail had been stolen in Lincoln, St. Charles and St. Louis counties. The checks consisted of money that residents were sending to settle their bills.
Coan, 25, of Alexandria, and Megan Adams, 37, of Southgate, pleaded guilty to two counts each of mail theft and bank fraud. Coan was sentenced in January to two years in prison and Adams received time served. She was also ordered to repay $39,377.90.
