BY CRAIG CROSBY

Staff Writer

Two Randolph women have been charged with stealing checks and letters from mailboxes the week before Christmas.

Lori Mathews, 38, and her roommate, Roberta Westerlund, 53, were issued summonses Tuesday charging each with theft after the women admitted to taking the checks from mailboxes in Pittston, Maine State Police Trooper Robert Cejka said.

Mathews, who allegedly attempted to cash some of the checks, also has been charged with forgery and theft by deception, Cejka said.

Mathews and Westerlund are to appear in court April 8.

There may be other victims, Cejka said, but senders rarely confirm Christmas cards reached their recipients.

"There are possibly other victims out there that don't know their mail has been stolen," he said. "We think, from the investigation, there could be up to 10 mailboxes that have been hit."

A total of at least a dozen checks were taken after homeowners placed them in the mailboxes for delivery, Cejka said.

Some of the unmailed cards and envelopes were later found on a dirt road with the checks missing.

A homeowner who witnessed one of the thefts described the alleged thief as a blond female driving a silver-and-gray Pontiac, Cejka said.

A picture of a blond woman taken by security cameras at Savings Bank of Maine, where some of the stolen checks allegedly were taken, ran in Tuesday's Kennebec Journal. An anonymous tip from a convenience store employee who read the article led to Mathews and Westerlund, Cejka said.

"The tipster recognized the person and through sources we were able to track the person down," Cejka said.

Craig Crosby--623-3811, ext. 433

ccrosby@centralmaine.com