Heidi Martin bought a money order for $900 to pay her credit card bill, dropped it in the mail from her Richmond home, and assumed that was the end of it. Instead, she says someone else cashed it, and nearly a year later, she still has not gotten her money back.
Martin filed an incident report with Richmond Police after discovering the money order had been cashed by someone other than her credit card company, according to click2houston.com. She says she had simply bought a legitimate money order and sent it to pay a legitimate bill, only to watch it disappear into someone else's pocket. To make sure her credit card account stayed current, Martin ended up paying another $900 out of pocket, on top of the $900 she had already lost.
A Case Referred to Federal Investigators, Still Open
Martin's case was referred to federal postal investigators, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service has confirmed it remains open, per the same report. A reverse number search tied to the case located an address associated with the phone number on the money order, but the person connected to that phone number was not linked to the potential theft, leaving the trail cold for now.
U.S. Postal Inspector Miguel Arispe, who works the Houston Division, said federal investigators are actively investigating mail theft specifically at the Richmond post office. Arispe added that Houston Division postal inspectors field hundreds of complaints every week, a volume that hints at how stretched thin the response can be. Martin, for her part, said the new law means little without enforcement behind it — her case, as reported, remains unresolved.
Texas Law on Mail Theft
Texas lawmakers have addressed mail theft through Senate Bill 1281.
The legislation also created a standalone felony for conduct involving postal-service keys or locks — a third-degree felony for obtaining, possessing, duplicating, transferring or using a key or lock with intent to harm, defraud or deprive someone of property, with a subsequent conviction punishable as a second-degree felony. The law prohibits intentionally appropriating mail without the addressee's consent in order to deprive them of it or to steal a negotiable instrument.
Uneven Enforcement Across Houston-Area Counties
Click2Houston asked prosecutors across the Houston area about cases charged under the new provisions between Sept. 1, 2025, and May 1, 2026, and the answers varied widely by county. Fort Bend County's district attorney's office reported zero prosecutions or formal charges under the relevant penal code section during that window, despite having considered one investigated case in September 2025 without filing charges and reviewing two more suspects connected to incidents in March and April 2026 who had not been arrested.
Montgomery County's office reported just one mail-theft case in the same period, and it arose out of a shoplifting investigation rather than an allegation that money had been stolen. Brazoria County charged eight people during the period, but all eight cases were later dismissed or otherwise disposed of. Chambers County filed zero cases under the relevant codes, while Galveston County reported 11 charges. Harris County said mail-theft cases filed during that window involved portions of the code that predated SB 1281. Liberty County did not respond to the request at all.
A Problem Investigators Call Growing
Postal inspectors describe mail theft as a problem that keeps getting worse across the Houston area, according to ABC13. The Postal Inspection Service logged roughly 5,000 stolen-mail reports in 2023, yet only 44 of those cases led to arrests in Harris County alone — a gap that echoes the thin enforcement numbers prosecutors gave for the period after SB 1281 took effect. For several weeks this year, postal inspectors have teamed up with other law enforcement agencies to target people suspected of stealing mail, an effort that has included scrutiny of game rooms as possible outlets for stolen items.
Those enforcement pushes have produced some results elsewhere. A multi-agency operation near Houston's Memorial Park Post Office recovered more than 80 pieces of mail and nine postal keys, ABC13 reported separately. And the Postal Inspection Service has said it convicted Jason Daniel Guerrero of first-degree felony mail theft out of a Harris County case, with Guerrero sentenced in October 2025 to seven years in state prison, according to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Separately, the agency previously offered a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the arrest of three men suspected in several Houston-area mail thefts, per Houston Public Media.
Martin's Unresolved Loss
For Martin, $900 remains missing. Her case remains unresolved after she filed a police report and is still waiting for a callback.
