Residents who recently made donations to the Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts and other neighboring organizations in the Cypress Creek Cultural District may have been victims of mail theft, museum officials said.
Envelopes with cash and check donations intended for the The Pearl Fincher Museum, located at 6815 Cypresswood Drive, Spring, and other neighboring organizations have been stolen from business mailboxes between Jan. 1-April 2, according to a April 29 news release by the museum.
Some checks have been diverted for deposit by mobile phone app into an account that does not belong to the museum. In each of these instances concerning the museum, and in all instances experienced by other organizations, the deposit was made by mobile phone deposit, and there is no endorsement appearing on the back of the check, according to the news release.
None of the victimized organizations at any time use mobile phone apps for banking.
"We are aware of two Pearl donors who had mailed contribution checks cleared by their respective banks into the bank account of someone else and not into the Pearl Fincher Museum account as had been intended by the donor," Museum Director Ani Boyajian stated in the news release.
U.S. Postal Service authorities, law enforcement agencies and banking institutions are actively involved in the investigation and pursuit of the perpetrators.
"We need to ask your assistance with our research into the extent of losses due to this very disturbing turn of events," Boyajian stated. "If you have mailed a donation by check, cash or credit card to Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts ... [between Jan. 1-April 2], we ask that you please check your bank account records to ascertain if the transactions have cleared and have been properly endorsed and deposited to the museum’s Amegy bank account."
Residents are encouraged to call the museum at 281-376-6322 if they have experienced a suspicious transaction.
"If you have made a contribution during this period and have received a thank you acknowledgement letter for the specific donation, this indicates that the museum did receive your contribution and your donation has been properly deposited and credited," Boyajian stated. "If you have made a donation during the period involved and have not received a letter of thanks and acknowledgement from the museum, it is possible that your check has been diverted illegally into an account not belonging to the museum."