DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – U.S. Postal Service officials say mail thefts have cost Iowa businesses thousands of dollars in the past few months. Inspector Jim O’Hara told The Des Moines Register on Tuesday that businesses have notified his office of stolen mail and suspicious activity on their bank accounts. He says thieves steal checks from mailboxes, make counterfeits and then recruit homeless people to cash them.

O’Hara says the scheme is becoming more common in the Midwest, and investigators think the more recent cases can be linked to the Bloods gang in Atlanta. He advises businesses to lock mailboxes and retrieve mail as soon as possible.

Firefighters from Irwin, Kirkman and Defiance were called to the scene of a structure fire about five miles east of Kirkman, Tuesday afternoon. The call went out about 4:20 to 2204 1500th St, the Plumb and Sons Tiling and Trenching business. Firefighters were able to contain the fire to one portion of the building, with some structural damage in that area. Crews were on scene for about 2 hours. The fire is believed to have been electrical in nature.

(KNOD/Harlan)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve troops are being warned to remove personal and military data from their social media accounts, lest the information help terrorists launch attacks inside the United States. Officials with the Iowa National Guard and the Army Reserve’s 103rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) at Fort Des Moines, which oversees 5,000 troops in four states, told The Des Moines Register that troops won’t be barred from using social media accounts.

The National Guard spokesman, Col. Gregory Hapgood Jr., says the troops shouldn’t list anything about their employment or travel plans. Hapgood says Iowa National Guard units’ Facebook accounts now just mention events that already have occurred, rather than upcoming events.

A family dispute Tuesday evening led to the arrest of a Red Oak woman. The Red Oak Police Department reports officers took 49-year old Rebecca Jean Gulick into custody on a charge of Public Intoxication, after officers responded to a residence in the 100 block of east Reed Street, at around 6:25-p.m.

Police had been called to resolve a family dispute. When officers arrived, the found Gulick with a strong odor of alcohol on her breath. She consented to a breath test and blew over the legal limit for public intoxication.

Gulick was brought to the Montgomery County Jail and held on $300 bond.