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Sunday, August 24, 2008

Mail thieves at work

Have a few minutes in the middle of packing for vacation, and need to catch up …

Carolyn Seitz recently sent this “all hands” letter, which we share with you:

I learned from friends this evening that there is an adult male and two young men somewhere between late teens and early 20’s in a newer Ford Escape, stealing mail from mailboxes.  They are Caucasian and all have shaved heads.

This morning, one of my friends was out for what she thought would be a quick walk to let her 3 dogs do what dogs need to do at 6:30 am.

She was on Sierra Madre Boulevard in Sierra Madre when she saw the 2 young men quickly opening mailboxes, especially where the boxes are unsecured gang boxes.   In some areas of Altadena, there are rows of mailboxes all clustered.

When these three men realized they’d been seen, the adult, sitting in the passenger seat of the car quickly but calmly called out to the two younger men to hurry up and put the mail in the boxes, as if they were just leaving outgoing mail.

My friend, at first out for a quick run out with the dogs, in her plaid PJ bottoms and white t-shirt, ended up running to the Sierra Madre Police Department.  On the way there she saw these same guys again, still emptying mailboxes and when they saw her, they made a u-turn and started to drive away.

She ran to the police station, gave them a report and by the time she was running back with the dogs, the SMPD was on the scene where she told them they’d find the majority of mailboxes open. 

She was also able to give them the license number for the car, except for the first digit.

If you don’t have a locking mailbox, get one, or have your mail sent to a post office box.  Don’t leave outgoing mail in an unsecured mailbox.  Don’t be an easy target for identity theft.

Carolyn

This morning, one of my friends was out for what she thought would be a quick walk to let her 3 dogs do what dogs need to do at 6:30 am.

She was on Sierra Madre Boulevard in Sierra Madre when she saw the 2 young men quickly opening mailboxes, especially where the boxes are unsecured gang boxes.   In some areas of Altadena, there are rows of mailboxes all clustered.

When these three men realized they’d been seen, the adult, sitting in the passenger seat of the car quickly but calmly called out to the two younger men to hurry up and put the mail in the boxes, as if they were just leaving outgoing mail.

My friend, at first out for a quick run out with the dogs, in her plaid PJ bottoms and white t-shirt, ended up running to the Sierra Madre Police Department.  On the way there she saw these same guys again, still emptying mailboxes and when they saw her, they made a u-turn and started to drive away.

She ran to the police station, gave them a report and by the time she was running back with the dogs, the SMPD was on the scene where she told them they’d find the majority of mailboxes open.

She was also able to give them the license number for the car, except for the first digit.

If you don’t have a locking mailbox, get one, or have your mail sent to a post office box.  Don’t leave outgoing mail in an unsecured mailbox.  Don’t be an easy target for identity theft.

Carolyn