By the time the older couple sought Postmaster LeEtte Duncan’s help last summer in Pacific City, OR, she feared it was too late to stop the financially crippling scam they’d fallen for.
A caller impersonating a bank representative had convinced the couple they needed to send a cashier’s check for $99,000 via Priority Mail Express to a P.O. Box in Maryland in order to protect their savings.
They had already done so — a full day earlier — before they grew suspicious.
“I thought it would be a slim chance that we would succeed,” Duncan said later. Still, she sprang into action and immediately called Michelle Leonard, a complaints and inquiry clerk at the Portland, OR, Processing and Distribution Center.
Leonard advised Duncan to contact the Postal Inspection Service and went to work locating the shipment, which she intercepted just in time before it made its way to the East Coast.
The couple and their money were soon reunited.
“I could not help but smile for over a week, and I was so happy working as a team with LeEtte to get this couple’s life savings back to them,” Leonard said. “We can accomplish many things that may be considered a miracle, as this one felt. This type of cooperation is what all our customers deserve.”
Duncan added: “If we engage with our customers, we can encourage communication to prevent scams like this.”