CITY OF BURTON CALLS ON FBI AFTER UNAUTHORIZED LETTERS SENT WITH CITY HALL RETURN ADDRESS

  

The City of Burton has requested the assistance of the FBI amid a possible case of mail fraud.

Burton Mayor Karen Buck read a statement at Tuesday’s Burton City Council meeting saying that earlier this month, a resident notified the city that she received an unsigned letter with a return address of Burton City Hall.  Buck informed the resident that the letter writer was using the city hall address illegally, and the city shared a notice on social media that it “did not write, send, or authorize this letter.”

The contents of what was in the letter itself were not addressed during the meeting.  A resident who received the letter told KWHI that it concerned the oft-discussed subdivision ordinance that has come up for debate multiple times in council, and that the letter was against adopting the ordinance.

Days after the original report, Burton City Hall received a phone call from a resident on behalf of his neighbors, saying they had also received an unsigned letter at an address outside of town, on property they had not owned in over a decade.  The letter was confirmed to be the same one that the first resident notified the city about.

Buck informed the Burton Post Office Postmaster of the letter and discussed the proper procedure to deal with mail fraud, a federal offense.  They also reviewed issues with mislabeled mail, as it was being returned to the post office due to the mail using physical addresses instead of PO Boxes.

Additionally, when a city staff member was making a bank deposit, the bank presented the employee with three more letters that had been mailed to their physical address.  Buck’s statement said people living outside of Burton city limits have also received the letter.

Buck has filed a report with the FBI, who she said advised her to submit reports with the Postal Inspection Service and Washington County Sheriff’s Office.