This summer, Falcon experienced a crime spree. The offense: mail theft.One or more individuals were driving around Falcon neighborhoods that have individual mailboxes, looking for an “up” flag indicating a mailbox containing outgoing mail.They would take the outgoing mail and open the envelopes. Then, they would drive on, looking for another mailbox with an “up” flag.In that mailbox, they would remove the outgoing mail and leave the empty envelopes from the previous mailbox.”They were looking for checks,” said Chris Groskinsky, a supervisor at Peyton’s post office.”I recovered some of the mail and the checks were taken out.”Kelly Salling-Davies, who lives in Woodmen Hills, left mail for pick up from her mailbox.Later, when she checked for incoming mail, she found two opened envelopes with a return address from a house a few blocks away, she said.When she returned her neighbor’s mail, she learned one of those envelopes had contained a check.According to www.ckfraud.org, common household chemicals can be used to remove ink from checks. The thief then rewrites the payee, increases the amount payable and cashes the check.”For the short term, it would be wise for everybody not to put mail out for pick up,” Groskinsky said.Maybe for the long term, too.The Falcon thieves might have been looking for checks, but, according to an article at www.IdentityTheft911.com, some thieves use stolen mail to steal identities.A name, street address, credit card number and bank account number are just what an identity thief is looking for.When outgoing letters are gone, it’s assumed they’ve been picked up by the postal carrier. This gives mail thieves a big advantage because it usually takes quite a bit of time before the victim realizes something is wrong.In this case, the Falcon mail thieves did their victims a favor by depositing the stolen mail in another mailbox. The victims were alerted that something was amiss within a few days or less.Groskinsky said an alert resident saw a mail theft in progress, got the vehicle’s license plate number and reported it to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.Deputy Teresa Murphy, public information officer for the Sheriff’s Office, said the postal inspector for the Colorado Springs area is following up on the lead.Mail theft can also be reported to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service at https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov.According to Title 18, United States Code, Section 1708, mail theft is a federal felony and could be punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years.Putting outgoing mail in a U.S. Postal Service mailbox could have risks, too.Groskinsky said on July 4, someone dropped a lighted firecracker in a parcel locker on Mount Evans Road in Meridian Ranch.Although the locker wasn’t blown apart, it was blackened, he said.
