Card Cracker Turned Carjacker Sentenced to Six Years
Robert Powell of Indianapolis, Ind., has been sentenced to 79 months in prison for robbing a U.S. postal service truck, a federal crime.
Carjacked Postal Worker Doing Morning Deliveries
In the early hours of June 15, 2022, Powell approached a U.S. Postal Service worker while she was delivering mail at an apartment complex in Avon, Ind., according to a Justice Department press release.
Wearing a mask, Powell showed the victim his firearm. He ordered the victim to exit the truck, forcing her to leave her belongings behind, say prosecutors. He then stole the truck and drove away from the complex at a high rate speed, before pulling over about a mile away, where he met another person who was in a Mazda 6 sedan.
Followed by a Second Postal Worker
While Powell was driving the truck, a second postal carrier followed him, believing the person driving the vehicle was behaving erratically. The second postal worker witnessed Powell and the other person take packages, mail and other items from the postal truck and put them in the car. When they noticed the second mail carrier watching them, the duo fled the scene.
‘Syko Bob’
The second letter carrier called the police.
An inspection by U. S. Postal Service security led them to Powell’s Facebook account, which was listed under the name “Syko Bob.” From that account, Powell solicited bank account information from other people, committing so-called card cracking fraud.
Card cracking frauds occur when people willingly provide their personal banking account information to fraudsters, who then use it to launder stolen money or to withdraw money from the account, paying the so-called “victim” a cut after the account is reported compromised and the bank reimburses the victim, according to an alert by the American Bankers Association.
Official Statement
John E. Childress, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, highlighted in the Justice Department statement how carjacking and other violent crimes inflict lasting harm on victims.
“This criminal chose to threaten the life of a letter carrier at gunpoint, engaging in gun violence to facilitate the fraud scheme he perpetrated against countless victims,” Childress said. “Fortunately, the letter carrier was not physically harmed, but the lasting trauma he inflicted is palpable. Letter carriers should not have to live in fear of gun violence simply for doing their jobs.
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