U.S. Postal Inspector badge. The federal agent tells ENOUGH they are looking into the Richmond post office after repeated complaints.

RICHMOND, Texas - For Heidi Martin, the lights in her home are usually off.

She counts every dollar. She watches her utility bills. She keeps her air conditioning above 80 degrees because, as she puts it, she cannot afford to run it much lower.


Martin lives carefully because she has to.

So, when it came time to pay a credit card bill she used to pay her utilities, Martin says she did what she thought was the responsible thing: she bought a $900 money order and sent it through the mail.

She never expected that money to disappear.

 I was angry,  Martin said.

The money order was supposed to pay her credit card bill. Instead, Martin says, the payment never arrived.

She eventually contacted her bank after discovering the credit card bill had not been paid. The bank sent her a copy of the money order showing it had been cashed.

But it had not been cashed by the credit card company. Someone else had apparently gotten hold of it. On the back of the money order was a signature and a phone number.

Nearly a year later, Martin says she still has not gotten her $900 back. She still does not know who cashed the money order. And she says she has heard little about what happened to her case.

 Not only did I have to lose the $900 that was taken out of the post office, but I had to come up with another $900 to pay the bill,  Martin said.

Her experience comes as Texas has a new law aimed at strengthening the state's response to mail theft involving money and other negotiable instruments.

The question now is whether the law is translating into more prosecutions.

The U.S. Post Office (KPRC2 2026)

A new law took effect in September

Senate Bill 1281 took effect September 1, 2025.

The law changed Texas' mail-theft statute in several significant ways.

Under the previous law, prosecutors generally had to prove that mail was taken from another person's mailbox or premises. SB 1281 removed that specific requirement. The law now makes it an offense

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