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       Federal prosecutors seized more than $400,000 from a former D.C. postal worker after he allegedly stole around $1.7 million in checks from the mail and deposited them into his own bank accounts, federal prosecutors said in court documents filed last month.

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       Hachikosela Muchimba started work as a mail carrier at the Friendship Post Office Station in Northwest Washington in 2020, according to the civil forfeiture complaint filed Aug. 29 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Prosecutors allege that he altered checks and deposited them into his own bank accounts as early as January 2023. He also endorsed some checks to Double Blue Investments, a business that he founded, according to its website.

       Civil forfeiture allows authorities to seize property they say is related to criminal activity. Muchimba is the subject of a criminal investigation, according to court documents, but has not been charged with a crime.

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       Muchimba — who the complaint said was placed on off-duty status without pay in March — did not respond to requests for comment by mail and phone. Phone and email messages to Double Blue Investments were also not returned. No attorney for him has entered an appearance in the case.

       The stolen-mail scheme now targeting a wealthy D.C. suburb

       According to the complaint, a postal customer reported in January that they had not received a U.S. Treasury check for around $14,000. Instead, the check had been altered and deposited into a bank account opened by Muchimba.

       The customer “recognized the name and the address on the U.S. Treasury check as the same name and address that [the] mail carrier had used on a holiday card,” the complaint said.

       Four other altered Treasury checks were deposited into an account controlled by Muchimba, according to the complaint, and surveillance photos showed a person prosecutors said was Muchimba withdrawing funds from those accounts while “wearing U.S. Postal Service clothing typically worn by employees.”

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       A search of Muchimba’s residence in March recovered an ATM receipt for the deposit of a U.S. Treasury check for more than $415,000 into a Sandy Spring Bank account, the complaint said, and the account was seized in April.

       Postal thefts jump. Employees are both victims and criminals.

       In all, Muchimba controlled bank accounts at eight financial institutions and deposited “approximately 98 misappropriated checks,” the vast majority of them from the U.S. Treasury, totaling around $1.7 million, according to the complaint.

       Spokespeople for the U.S. Postal Service and its Office of Inspector General declined to comment, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, which filed the complaint, did not respond to requests for comment.

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       Last year, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service alerted the Justice Department that there was an increase in checks being stolen from the mail and used in fraudulent schemes.

       Mail theft is rising. Here’s how to safeguard your envelopes.

       In May, the Postal Service released statistics showing there had been 25,000 thefts from mailboxes in the first half of the fiscal year, compared with 38,500 for all of last year. At that rate, the service is on track for a 30 percent increase in mailbox thefts. In some cases, postal employees have been a part of the crimes, including incidents in Los Angeles and Illinois.

       The Postal Service said it would increase security measures, including installing higher-security collection boxes and replacing some older locks with electronic ones.

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