Mail Theft Lands McClain County Couple In Jail

A crime spree stretched through three cities and now, a small clue leads to a big break in the case. A McClain County couple was jailed on several complaints including mail theft.

Investigators say some of the stolen mail belonged to their neighbors, but that wasn't the only thing investigators found.

For about a month, the park manager at Adkins Hill Village continued to find mailbox doors wide open.

When Sally Landrith's car payment went missing from the outgoing box, she suspected it was connected.

“I kept checking my account, kept checking my account online it never cleared,” Landrith said. 

Several days later, Landrith received a call from her bank about a questionable check a woman tried to cash.

“They had gotten a phone call from another bank in town that they had a check that did not look right it didn't look like a real check but it had my signature on it,” she said.

A signature Landrith was later told was cut from the actual check she wrote and the routing number was printed on a phony check using a copier.

But when trying to cash the bogus check, court filings say the woman gave the bank teller her ID. This information led McClain County investigators to their suspect. When they arrived at the trailer, they reported smelling a cover up.

“We figured they were destroying evidence so we forced entry, secured the residents, and they were burning stolen mail that they had taken from mail boxes in the area,” said Detective Dana Guthire, McClain County Sheriff’s Office.

Christie and Neil Jennings both face a slew of possible charges for what investigators found inside their trailer.

Not only mail, but tires said to belong to a nearby auto shop, a package investigators say was swiped from an Oklahoma City Discount Tire, and meth.

A lesson learned for Landrith, who plans to mail any checks directly from the post office.

“People will do anything they can to keep from working,” she said.

The McClain County Sheriff's Office said the couple confessed to some of the crimes, but not all.