UPDATE: A condominium building at 8530 Holloway Dr. is the latest in West Hollywood to have suffered a theft of residents’ mail. Lt. David Smith of the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station said today “We’ve been getting hit randomly along with other cities.” Smith said an arrest was made in a mailbox break-in about three weeks ago, but it is clear that others are conducting similar break-ins. Smith said Sheriff’s station is working with the U.S Postal Service and its detectives on the matter.
Apparently there are multiple people involved in the recent rash of mailbox thefts in West Hollywood apartment and condo buildings.
WEHOville published a story Wednesday with a photo of a man apparently removing mail from mailboxes in a building on West Knoll Drive north of Santa Monica Boulevard. Thursday evening another reader provided a video of three people entering his condo building at on Doheny Drive near Cynthia Street and stealing mail.
The reader, Aaron Micu, who is president of his homeowners association, said he “received a mail theft complaint from one of the homeowners in my building on Cynthia and Doheny. Being the HOA (homeowners association) president, I reviewed our cameras to find a man, woman and younger male access our building through the master lock, enter our mail room and proceed to use a master key to open all mail boxes, fill a large hefty style plastic garbage bag full of mail, remove all packages, and casually walk out of the building.”
Micu said the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station was alerted to the theft. He said a deputy who he talked to described the situation as an “epidemic,” saying the station was receiving frequent calls.
In the video, a woman is using what appears to be a mail carriers key to open the front door of the building. The key then is used to open the panels covering the mailboxes, allowing the woman and her two male companions to remove the mail and dump it into a large bag.
The story published by WEHOville on Wednesday included photos that showed a single man who did not resemble the three in the building on Doheny. The reader who provided those photos said that man also had used a master key that is provided to mail carriers to enter the building.
Stacia Crane of the public information office at the U.S. Postal Inspection Service urged that anyone who believes his or her mail was stolen report it immediately by submitting an online complaint at postalinspectors.uspis.gov or calling (877) 876-2455.
I live in 90049 area. My family and I had mail stolen and over 100,000 dollars from stolen checks. The thieves ruined our credit, our identity stolen and medical info theft as well. I hired a private detective , it worked but took 6 months. It was a stolen mailbox key like all have been. It’s taken a year to get funds back and finally one thief in jail. But others not yet. The amount of time and energy ( and fortune for PI) was was overwhelming. The Post Office inspectors can’t keep up with all the theft that is… Read more »
Looks like the one guy keeps trying to point a laser at the surveillance camera. Probably thinking he’s blinding it.
1203 North Sweetzer Avenue, WEHO was hit this morning at 8:30 am by a single white mail – taking packages and opening one of the three locked mail sections. Photos are being turned over to the Sheriff’s office. Interesting that the Post Office isn’t doing squat with stealing mail is a federal offense.
West Hollywood deputies confirmed to me this morning that indeed there is one postal master key, and a master punch key code for older buildings. I was told the USPS is not willing to get involved with this series of thefts, to the point that they have told Sheriff deputies that felony charges can only be possible if a single item worth $1000k or more was stolen from a locked mailbox (not left in the mail room due to oversize). The Sheriff is fighting a battle to apprehend these thieves without USPS support. My concern, outside of obvious identity theft… Read more »
A friend had his DMV plates for his new car stolen. He only found out when he got a letter from the Postal Inspectors. It’s been 3 months and the only response from DMV is pay $25 to get new plates. Really?
We have had items stolen from lobby recently on Flores St between Santa Monica and Fountain.
According to our long time carrier, there is ONE mail box key that gives ALL carriers access to ALL buildings and mail boxes through out the city. At one point it was discovered that a key had been duplicated and used eventually getting stuck in one of the boxes. Others have been stolen from mail carriers who check the key in and out daily. Faulty mailboxes that do not close properly are the responsibility of the landlord to repair or replace.
KABC 7 news just did an interview about this which will air at 11pm tonight. They got higher quality video of the theft.