UPPER LAKE ? Fear of identity theft arose after mail was stolen from 12 residential mailboxes in Upper Lake around the end of 2008, according to authorities.
Kenn McCarty made a report to the Lake County Sheriff”s Office on Saturday that his mail had been stolen that morning. He said he and his wife had noticed previously that his friends were not receiving his letters, and expected mail was not arriving. Going to work Saturday morning at 8 a.m., McCarty noticed his mailbox flag was up, the door was open and an outgoing letter was missing. He didn”t expect his mail carrier until the afternoon.
“As I drove to work, I saw other mailboxes on my street with their flags up and their doors down, and they were empty. That clued me in that it was a wide area that was hit,” McCarty said.
A Jan. 5 letter from the Upper Lake Post Office said mail was taken from Upper Lake mailboxes between Dec. 26 and Jan. 2. The letter warned residents to bring outgoing mail to the post office, and recommended that residents install locking mailboxes.
Mail theft is a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine per piece of mail stolen, according to Hillary Smith, a postal inspector with the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS). The agency investigates mail theft, mail fraud, drugs and pornography sent via mail and any other mail-related crime.
“Usually felonious usage of the mail once it is stolen is how we track the thieves, but we have other investigative tools,” Smith said.
McCarty”s stolen letter contained nothing that could be used to steal his identity. Nonetheless, he sent a letter to his neighbors on Upper Lake Lucerne Road warning them to safeguard their mail. He said when he hand-delivered the same letter to Upper Lake Postmaster Marie Lane, she handed him an envelope containing his stolen letter.
“I then had questions, and she said a whole pile was recovered in a planter at Judy”s Junction,” McCarty said.
McCarty urged his neighbors to report stolen mail. Smith said her agency had received only McCarty”s report as of Thursday and confirmed that the USPIS is investigating the incident. She said mail crimes should be reported to the local law enforcement agency as well as to the USPIS. To report a mail crime, call USPIS at 1-877-USMAIL-5, or the Lake County Sheriff”s Office at 263-2690.
Captain Jim Bauman of the LCSO said he was not aware of a report of stolen mail.
“It comes and goes in spurts, speaking from past experience. We collect as much evidence as we can and follow up on any leads we might find based on that evidence. We collect fingerprints if they”re collectible,” Bauman said.
Smith noted that fingerprints left on mailboxes and recovered mail can be difficult to collect, depending on weather and relative humidity.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com, or call her directly at 263-5636 ext. 37.
