DeBARY, Fla. – A DeBary woman may have to come up with more rent money after her check was forged and cashed.
Debi Behrens dropped her check off at the DeBary post office outside mailbox on Oct. 31.
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She usually mails it from home, but because of a time crunch, sent it via the post office.
It's a move that is costing her close to $2,000.
"It's obvious. If you look at the check, that's not my writing. You can tell something has been whited out. You can see the writing behind the name," Behrens said.
Since the incident, Behrens has been in contact with her bank, the postal inspector and DeBary police.
"He said they're fishing it out of the mailbox outside with some type of device that has adhesive on the end, and they bleach out the name on the payee line and write in their own or someone and then they cash them," Behrens said.
DeBary police said days after Behrens filed her report, they got another one from the same location.
To add more complications to the case, the person who cashed her check did it on their phone and didn't go into a branch.
"I need to pay my house payment and I don't have another way to pay it and here we are almost another month and I am going to have to owe him another month of rent," Behrens said.
Behrens banks through TD bank.
They told her because their bank did not cash the check she has to wait on repayment from the bank from where it was cashed.
That bank hasn't been named.
Behrens told News 6 she's been told it may take a minimum of 90 days before she sees her money.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is investigating the case.
A representative told News 6 they're aware of the situation and are looking into it.
No further details were released, because this is an open investigation.
However, the representative with the postal service said if anyone needs to mail a letter, do it during business hours, and to be on the safe side, walk the letter into the post office to mail it.