[paypal_woes]

Forgot to note two other interesting facts:

1) The check was addressed to my USPS PO Box -- the kind inside an actual post office. It seems extremely unlikely that a random person could have accessed it; more likely, it was misdelivered to another PO Box customer at the same office.

2) The check appears to have been cashed via Capital One's mobile app -- "for mobile deposit only" is written in the endorsement field, along with the thief's name and signature (but not mine, not even a forged one).

Putting these two together, it seems not unlikely that the thief could have been easily found, if PayPal were not actively obstructing even the most basic steps toward an investigation.

[randombits0]

If you have a name, go to the post office and tell them your story. They may help you, especially if the name is also a PO Box user, as it is a violation of postal law to open misdelivered mail, let alone cash a check fraudulently.

They may also be inclined to help you to help dodge responsibility for misdirected mail.

[paypal_woes]

The name is not really legible, at least not to me: Here is the back of the check in question: https://i.imgur.com/ICBydCo.png

Nevertheless I will try to talk to someone at the post office about it. I had covid all last week, so didn't want to do it then.