CHICAGO – A Chicago the man was sentenced to seven years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for his role in a string of burglaries and identity thefts spanning several years.

Jonathan Minter, 38, pleaded guilty Monday to burglary charges.

The case stems from a series of incidents between September 2023 and February 2024 during which Minter used counterfeit postal keys to illegally access residential mailboxes in condominiums and apartments around the world. Chicago.

Investigators have linked Minter to about 20 burglaries and identity thefts.

Joint investigation leads to arrests

Minter was first arrested on September 28, 2023, following a joint investigation by the US Postal Inspection Service and the Chicago Police Department. Authorities also arrested Andrew Kirkpatrick, 31, of Champaign, Illinois, identifying both men as suspects in numerous apartment burglaries, mail thefts and subsequent identity thefts in 2022 and 2023.

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Minter faced five burglary charges in Chicago after that arrest.

A second arrest followed on October 23, 2023, after Minter was accused of trespassing into at least seven homes and stealing items. These incidents occurred at apartment complexes in several neighborhoods, including Peterson Park, Andersonville, Old Norwood Park, Edgewater, Lake View and the South Loop.

Specific theft dates and locations include:

• April 3: 5900 block of North Lincoln Avenue (Peterson Park)
• April 9: 5800 Block of North Clark Street (Andersonville)
• April 15-16: 110 Block of West Ardmore Avenue (Old Norwood Park)
• April 16: 5600 block of North Broadway (Edgewater)
• April 17: 5700 block of North Winthrop Avenue (Edgewater)
• September 7: 3800 block of North Fremont Street (Lake View)
• September 28: 1800 block of South Michigan Avenue (South Loop)

In that case, Minter faced seven additional burglary charges.

Jonathan Minter | Chicago police

Final arrest and conviction

Minter’s third arrest occurred on February 13, 2024, at the Homewood Suites Hotel in River North, during another joint investigation involving the US Postal Inspection Service and the Chicago Police Department. He was charged with three counts of theft and four counts of identity theft.

At the time of his arrest in February, Minter had been out on bond on previous charges and was facing more than a dozen warrants for failure to appear in court.

“We are glad to see that justice is being served on behalf of the victims. Mr. Minter was recently sentenced to just under 10 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for burglary and identity theft in the Chicagoland area,” said Postal Inspector Spencer Block. Office of Public Information.

Minter will receive credit for some time served.

RELATED: Uptown man charged with theft, identity theft after allegedly stealing mail

Protecting Postal Service Employees

The US Postal Service and the Postal Inspection Service have said that combating mail theft and violent crimes against postal workers is a top priority. In response to an increase in these crimes, they launched Project Safe Delivery in May 2023.

The initiative takes a comprehensive approach to protect postal employees and the mail system, focusing on preventing incidents through education and awareness while enforcing laws that protect the nation’s mail flow.

“Since May 2023, when Project Safe Deliver started, we have had over 2,000 arrests for theft and robbery as an agency nationally, which is well over a year and a half. I can tell you I hear in Chicago. division, which geographically is the states of Illinois and Wisconsin and then in a portion of Missouri, in fiscal year 2023, I think we had over 130 letter carriers. robberies in fiscal year ’24, we had about a 75 percent reduction,” Block said.

To learn more about protecting your mail and packages, visit https://www.uspis.gov/.