Reconfigured mailboxes were designed to thwart attempts to fish for checks, but are not infallible.

cious. And they still cashed the check.”

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“I had to pay interest because my tax payment was missed,” the central Queens resident said. “I read about two years ago that this was occurring. And I thought the new mailboxes solved this, but they did not.

“Someone I mentioned this to at the post office said, ‘Oh no, it does nothing. Always bring it to the post office.’”

A few years go, it seemed everyone in law enforcement from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to individual NYPD precinct detective squads were inundated with complaints about mail that was fished from older mail boxes by thieves using string to lower bottles, blocks of wood or other items into the collection bin after covering them with a sticky substance in order to steal envelopes.

Any cash recovered was instant profit. Many checks could be chemically “washed” so the ink from regular pens could be removed and new payees — and dollar amounts, often substantially more than the original — written in.

It had been made out to the city’s Department of Finance, with his borough, block number and all other necessary information on the memo line.

All were still there, with the exception of the Department of Finance being erased for a new payee.

The thief even rewrote the original amount back in to make sure the handwriting matched.

The victim said the bank has told him he might have the money back within a few days. He’s waiting to see what happens.

“I filled out an affidavit,” he said. There also were vendors he had to contact to give them his new banking information, ones which collect automatic monthly payments. T-Mobile was fine.

“But getting through to Con Ed, oh my God ...”

The city, he said, also was of little help.

Personnel at 311 answered promptly, but when he was transferred, the message just said to call at another time.

And when he got through?

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“I still had time to mail it, but it was getting close to the deadline,” the man said. “It was the beginning of the month. It was at night, too late to go to the post office. I figured, it was a mailbox on Metropolitan Avenue in front of a big law office. It’s got rollers and narrow slits. It’ll only be there one night. What are the odds of something happening?”

He even took the precaution of using a gel pen, which is recommended as being tougher for thieves to erase.

And still something happened.

“I think people need to know about this.”

And he is particularly miffed by what happened with his bank.

“I got a call ... They knew something was wrong. They called me. They were suspi-

“Regardless of why it was late, they can’t do anything about it. I had to pay the interest.”

The NYPD and the Postal Inspection Service both recommend that people using mailboxes should use them as close to the last posted pickup time as possible so that items are not sitting in a box overnight.

The NYPD also recommends not using them on weekends or holidays.

The police suggest that if at all possible, people can give their outgoing mail to their letter carriers.

Check-writers should use pens with permanent ink, and should check their account balances regularly in order to ensure that checks were cashed by those intended to receive them. Q