Two Spokane women who stole mail to help fuel their methamphetamine addictions are to repay nearly $50,000 and spend about four years in federal prison.

Jacquelyn A. Crawford, 40, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Edward Shea to 53 months in prison after pleading guilty in October to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Charlene M. Haggard, 43, received 48 months for the same charges.

Both will be on probation for three years and are prohibited from accruing debt, opening checking accounts or obtaining bank cards without a probation officer's approval. They also are to repay nearly $47,375.16 for counterfeit checks they passed at area businesses.

Haggard and Crawford gathered materials for fake checks by ransacking rural mail boxes and prowling cars from February until April, when investigators searched Haggard's home at 5904 N. Regal St. and Crawford's room at the Apple Tree Inn, 9508 N. Division Street.

Crawford said she was "kind of relieved" when she was taken into custody, investigators said.

"She just began injecting methamphetamine, so in a way she was thankful she was caught," Spokane County Sheriff's Office Detective Dean Meyer said in May. Crawford, a mother of three, completed in-patient rehabilitation and was allowed to stay with her mother in Spanaway pending sentencing. Haggard remains in the Spokane County Jail awaiting transport to prison.

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