register |  login
› BOULDER
Loading Ad
Visit Other Hubs:
ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Tower
RECENT STORIES

Sheriff warns about rural mailbox thefts
Contributed by: Boulder County Sheriff on 11/21/2006

Sheriff Joe Pelle would like to alert citizens to an on-going spate of mail thefts from rural roadside mailboxes.

Sheriff's deputies have recently taken reports of multiple overnight thefts of mail from rural roadside and community mailboxes. The first instance occurred overnight on Monday, Nov. 6 through Tuesday, Nov. 7, in the extreme northeast corner of the County (north of Ute Highway and east of North 115th Street). At least nine rural mailboxes were rifled, with at least 17 victims. Investigating deputies found much of the mail discarded along the roadsides in the area and surmised that the suspect had been looking for checks or other financial information as envelopes from financial institutions were found open and devoid of their contents.

A second series of thefts were reported on Sunday, Nov. 19. At least 17 mailboxes were entered and mail stolen. Additional reports of thefts are trickling in today as word spreads and additional area residents find that their mail is missing. The area encom-passed by the most recent thefts includes the rural neighborhoods of North 39th Street, North 41st Street, and Niwot Road west of 55th Street, approximately five miles north of Boulder. The thefts appear to have occurred sometime Saturday night or early Sunday morning. As before, much of the mail was discarded along the roadsides.

The Postal Inspectors Office has been notified of the thefts.

Mail Theft is an increasingly popular means of gaining information that leads to check fraud, credit card fraud, and identity thefts, to say nothing of the immediate gain from any currency or other valuables that may have been sent through the mail.

In order to minimize your exposure, the Sheriff's Office recommends that you:

Do not use your rural roadside mailbox as a "post office" for mailing packages, bill payments, or other financially sensitive documents. Mail them from a post office or secure United States Postal Service mailbox.

Collect the delivered mail from your mailbox as soon after delivery as possible. If you anticipate being gone for a few days, have a trusted friend or neighbor collect the mail in your absence, or arrange for the post office to stop delivery until you return.

Report suspicious vehicles and people to the Sheriff's Office immediately. Deputies are investigating the possibility that the most recent series of mail thefts may be related to an interrupted trespass to a vehicle that occurred Saturday night but which wasn't reported to authorities until today.

Anyone with information about these crimes is asked to contact the Sheriff's Office at 303-441-3650



SUBMIT COMMENT

Rate the above story



Talk Back : submit comments to the story

*Note: you need to log-in to add a comment or rating.

CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Jeff Thomas has posted 1629 stories and 83 comments since joining on 9/14/2005. Jeff Thomas's average story rating is 4.73.
SAVE AND SHARE THIS STORY
STORY RSS FEEDS
WANT TO WRITE FOR YOURHUB.COM?
Want to see the stories you write and the photos you shoot featured in the YourHub.com Thursday print section available all over the Front Range and with home subscriptions of the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post? All you have to do is register, then post a story or column, start a blog or tell everyone what events are happening in town. We will print the best stories, columns, event listings, photos and blog entries in our print sections.

ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Ad

Loading Ad
ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Ad

This YourHub.com community is produced by The Denver Newspaper Agency
Web Development and Channel Analytics provided by Indigio

terms of use //  privacy policy
the staff //  advertise //  help & faq
buy photos