ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Several times a week, Pattie Malone stops by her neighborhood mailbox and pulls out a large stack of envelopes that often includes traffic citations, parking tickets, and tollway invoices.
The street address of Malone’s single-family home near Apopka is printed on the letters, but she doesn’t recognize the many different names that appear on the envelopes.
“I was literally getting new names every day,” Malone told News 6. “I’ve been getting about 30 pieces of somebody else’s mail to my one piece of mail.”
Malone has amassed more than 600 letters addressed to at least 70 different people since she began saving the strangers’ mail in a cardboard box roughly six months ago.
About a quarter of the envelopes are “Pay-By-Plate” toll enforcement invoices sent by the Florida Department of Transportation and the Central Florida Expressway Authority.
Tollway agencies in a dozen other states including Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Texas also sent bills to Malone’s home.
Red light violations from Orlando, parking tickets from Los Angeles, and automated speed enforcement citations from New York City have landed in Malone’s mailbox.
Same with letters from towing company impound lots, auto insurance companies, and car manufacturers announcing safety recalls for vehicles Malone does not own.
Earlier this year, a detective investigating a retail theft case knocked on Malone’s front door in search of a person whose name happened to appear on several toll invoices.
“There’s something illegal going on,” said Malone. “Why am I getting all this mail?”
Malone contacted News 6 last month after she said she made several unsuccessful attempts to get the U.S. Postal Service to stop delivering the unwanted letters to her community’s small cluster-style mailbox.
A News 6 investigation into the mysterious letters has uncovered evidence that numerous vehicles with Florida license plates may have been fraudulently linked to Malone’s home address.
Many of those vehicles have been caught on camera driving through Central Florida and other states committing traffic violations and running up costly bills for unpaid tolls.
Some of the names that appear on the letters share names with suspected criminals from Romania who’ve been charged in Florida and other states with offenses such as retail theft, forgery and identity theft.
After News 6 posed specific questions to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles about the potential fraud, the state agency that oversees vehicle registrations announced it had launched a probe into the matter.
“This is an active criminal investigation,” an FLHSMV spokesperson told News 6.
Strangers’ mail begins arriving at Malone’s home
When Malone purchased her unincorporated Orange County home about five years ago, she occasionally received mail addressed to the property’s previous tenants, but over time it stopped, she said.
That changed last summer – Malone does not remember exactly when – as traffic citations, toll invoices, and other letters addressed to complete strangers began arriving in her mailbox.
“It started very slow. I was getting a few pieces for maybe five or six different names,” said Malone. “Then it started speeding up in the fall.”
At first Malone wrote “Return to Sender” on the envelopes by hand and dropped them back in the mail.
Then she bought a rubber stamp that reads “Return to Sender – has never lived here – I will continue sending these back and wasting your dime”.
Malone said she asked the Apopka post office to stop delivering mail not addressed to her family and placed a note in her mailbox instructing the mail carrier to do the same.
But the letters kept coming.
The large volume of unwanted mail was originally just a nuisance, Malone said. Then it began impacting her more directly.
First, Malone said she received a call from her auto insurance provider threatening to raise her premium because the company reportedly received information about an additional driver living at her home who was not listed on the family’s policy.
In April, a detective with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office showed up at Malone’s doorstep in search of someone wanted for questioning about a theft at an Illinois Walmart. Malone did not know the man but later found several toll invoices addressed to him.
After accumulating more than 600 envelopes and postcards over an approximately six-month period that were addressed to at least 70 different names, Malone called the News 6 Investigators in search of answers.
News 6 investigation uncovers potential fraud
In part due to legal concerns, Malone said she has refrained from opening mail not addressed to her.
But using names and other information visible on the sealed envelopes, News 6 has been able to track down court records and other documents that reveal numerous vehicles with Florida license plates are tied to Malone’s home address.
Although it appears likely those vehicles are registered with FLHSMV using Malone’s residential street address, the state agency has not confirmed that.
Malone has received at least eight letters addressed to Ariana Alexis Diaz.
Online court records show Orange County issued a traffic citation to Diaz after a camera on South Orange Blossom Trail captured video of a silver 2002 Toyota van with a Florida license plate running a red light in October.
Malone’s home address is printed on Diaz’s citation.
Like other traffic enforcement agencies, Orange County uses images of vehicles’ license plates to identify the registered owners.
Diaz, 22, never paid the $262 red-light citation so the debt was turned over to a collection agency and a notice was sent to FLHSMV to suspend her driver license, court records show.
Four months later, court records indicate Diaz was stopped by police in Miami-Dade County while driving a different vehicle, a 2009 Honda with a different Florida license plate that had expired.
A Bal Harbour police officer issued Diaz three citations for unknowingly driving with a suspended license, failing to show proof of insurance, and failing to present a registration certificate, court records show. The agency does not have video of the traffic stop, village officials said.
A judge later dismissed the citations, which listed Malone’s home address under Diaz’s name.
Diaz, who court records indicate may now live in Seaside, did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Dozens of letters addressed to Torbertino Canalli have been sent to Malone’s home from agencies in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and New York.
New York City records show authorities have issued Canalli 44 traffic citations totaling $3,730 in fines for infractions such as driving in bus lanes, parking in front of fire hydrants, and driving too fast near school zone speed enforcement cameras.
Videos and photos of those infractions reviewed by News 6 show a blue Honda Odyssey minivan with a Florida license plate.
Gabriel Mendoza’s name appears on invoices from toll agencies in Central Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, New York, and New Jersey.
Records from the New Jersey Turnpike reviewed by News 6 show a light-colored Chrysler Pacifica minivan with a Florida license plate linked to Mendoza running up a $1,453 bill for unpaid tolls between late March and mid-May.
A New Jersey tollbooth camera captured a photo of two men sitting in the front seat of that minivan. Malone said she does not recognize them.
News 6 has been unable to locate contact information for Canalli or Mendoza.
“Did they just randomly pick my address?” asked Malone. “And is this one person doing all this? Or is this a group of people doing this?”
Detectives investigating Illinois theft visit Malone’s house
Malone was a bit unnerved when two detectives with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office showed up at her home unannounced in April.
“At first I worried something had happened to my children,” said Malone.
The detectives were assisting police in Illinois who wanted to question a man about a retail theft case there, News 6 has learned.
Although Malone said she did not recognize the man’s name, she invited the detectives to look through her box of letters.
“We went through five or six pieces, and there he was,” Malone told News 6. “(The detective) said, ‘That’s him. That’s the one.’”
“Our agency received a report of a ‘quick change’ scam at our Walmart,” Johnsburg Illinois Police Chief Jason Greenwald told News 6. “Our investigator was able to locate a suspect vehicle that registered to [Malone’s address] in Apopka, Florida.”
According to Greenwald, the offender gave cash to a Walmart clerk for purchases on April 8, grabbed the bills back after they were counted, and then returned the bills to the clerk with more than $600 missing.
“The suspect remains at large, and the investigation is still active,” said Greenwald.
When the Orange County detectives visited Malone’s home, she said they opened some of the toll invoices addressed to the wanted man.
Those invoices, which Malone shared with News 6, show a dark-colored Toyota Sienna minivan traveling on Central Florida toll roads as recently as this month.
Illinois authorities have not said whether that particular van is tied to their retail theft investigation.
Some addressees share names with suspected criminals
At least four of the names printed on Malone’s letters share names with people charged with crimes in Central Florida and other states. News 6 is not identifying those criminal defendants since it could not be immediately confirmed whether they played a role in registering the vehicles.
A 26-year-old Romanian woman with the same first, middle and last names as an addressee is awaiting trial in Orange County for theft and providing false identification to a police officer after she was arrested for shoplifting from an Apopka CVS.
Police say the woman, who previously pleaded no contest to stealing 29 cans of baby formula from a Lake Mary Winn-Dixie, gave officers another person’s driver license after being stopped in a minivan with an unregistered temporary license plate.
A 19-year-old Orlando man originally from Romania was charged with stealing $1,430 from a Sarasota County supermarket through “quick change” scam, court records show.
“This is an ongoing crime trend among a group of Romanian citizens occurring within several states [including Louisiana],” a police officer wrote.
Malone received a parking ticket from Louisiana address to a man with the same first and last names as the 19-year-old theft suspect.
A 20-year-old Romanian woman who was arrested last month for fraudulently scanning merchandise in the self-checkout of an Ocoee Walmart also shares the name of a woman printed on toll invoices sent to Malone’s home.
Court records show that woman’s $500 bail was paid by another female whose first, middle and last names match those on other toll invoices.
A 22-year-old Orlando man, whose first and last names appear on a Florida toll invoice, is currently incarcerated in a Wisconsin jail on felony charges of bank fraud, identity theft, and improperly possessing a credit card scanning device.
The same man, who court records show is associated with an unspecified Apopka address, is facing additional charges in Pennsylvania for forgery and theft by deception.
Why are vehicles linked to Malone’s home?
FLHSMV has not yet confirmed whether the strangers’ vehicles are formally registered with the State of Florida using Malone’s home address, and if so, how it could potentially happen.
“Releasing information associated with the case while it is ongoing could compromise the criminal investigation,” an FLHSMV spokesperson told News 6.
There are several ways vehicles are registered in Florida.
Owners can initially register vehicles with FLHSMV at local tax collector offices and privately-operated tag agencies by appearing in-person at a service center and presenting proof of identification and proof of insurance.
Titleholders can also appoint someone else to register their vehicle in-person by filling out a power of attorney form that can be found on FLHSMV’s website.
Auto dealers licensed by FLHSMV can submit initial registration applications electronically on behalf of vehicles’ owners.
Once a vehicle is registered in Florida, owners can change their residential address online by visiting the MyDMV Portal on FLHSMV’s website.
A spokesperson for FLHSMV did not respond to questions inquiring whether the agency verifies the accuracy of address changes that are made online.
Post office stops delivery of unwanted letters to Malone’s mailbox
As News 6 was investigating this story, Malone said letters addressed to strangers abruptly stopped being delivered to her neighborhood mailbox.
“The Postal Service is working diligently to resolve the customer’s concern and we appreciate their patience as we work to satisfactorily address this matter,” a USPS spokesperson told News 6.
The federal agency said people who believe they are the victims of mail theft, identity theft, fraud or other crimes involving the U.S. mail can report it on the Postal Inspection Service website.
Convictions for mail fraud carry a maximum 20-year prison sentence and fines of up to $250,000 for each count.
Although Malone is no longer finding stacks of unwanted letters jammed in her mailbox, she is still concerned people may be using her home address for nefarious purposes.
“I want to get to the bottom of it,” said Malone. “Because somebody is doing something illegal.”