Family struggles with mailbox thief

Family reports mailbox stolen, swapped out 4 times since May

SAN ANTONIO – A family living just north of downtown is asking for the public's help after it said its mailbox has been stolen or swapped out four times since May.

Around 4 a.m. Thursday, surveillance cameras were rolling when the mailbox thief struck again.

"This morning we noticed that the gate was ajar and we reviewed the video and we found this woman sneaking up right to our front door at 4 (a.m.), apparently with our old mailbox under her arm," Adrian Letz said.

Letz and his wife Petra said the first time they noticed their mailbox missing, they replaced it, thinking a storm blew it away.

"My wife went and got an identical mailbox and put it up here (and) thought no big deal, but then we got back from church a week later and we noticed all of a sudden the old mailbox was in its place," he said.

Since then, their mailbox has been switched one other time and their mail missing.

Thursday morning, the thief left with nothing, but Letz said he worries she'll be back.

"I'm just concerned about identity theft," he said. "We don't really get anything valuable in the mail, but I'm concerned that bills could give away private information and I'm just kinda concerned that somebody could be so brazen."

Letz has a filed a police report with San Antonio police. He also filed a report with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

"We live in a nice neighborhood," he said. "You can see there's quite a bit of traffic. I just don't understand why you would take such a risk for next to nothing."

Mailboxes are considered federal property. Anyone caught stealing them or vandalizing them could be hit with a $250,000 fine and serve three years in prision.

If your mailbox has been vandalized or stolen, you should report it your postmaster immediately.


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