‘Even stealing Mother’s Day cards’: Natomas neighborhood fed up with weekly mail thefts

By Michelle Bandur

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    SACRAMENTO (KCRA) — Some residents in a Natomas neighborhood say they’ve been the repeated target of mail thieves for several years now, and are tired of losing valuable property and their identities.

They tell KCRA 3 News they’ve reached out to many agencies from Sacramento police to the U.S. Postal Inspector with no answers.

They said their cluster mailboxes are at issue, just like many other Sacramento neighborhoods.

Postal inspectors have said the thieves get the master key, which opens many mailboxes.

The Rockmont residents said someone hit their cluster box Saturday afternoon around 2:45 p.m.

“Good grief, they’re so brazen about it,” said Vicki Rondeau.

The residents said they file police reports, and contact the U.S. Postal inspector, city council and Congressman Ami Bera.

“We’ve contacted everybody but no one is going to do anything,” said Kelly Obrecht. “Nothing from the government to the post office, nothing. At this point, we have to figure out what we can do as a community.”

For starters, they record and share security videos. One camera captured a woman they say is not a resident checking her mail. Mail disappeared Saturday afternoon at 2:45.

Neighbors said they’ve lost thousands of dollars, from bank cards to prom dresses to earrings.

“She had bought a special pair of earrings to commemorate the trip and unfortunately they had to ship the earrings because they were making them custom,” said John Germany. ” They shipped the earrings and they were stolen upon arrival.”

All of the residents said they are fed up and frustrated.

“Here we are on Mother’s Day and we are sitting here talking to you about mail theft,” Germany said. “This is not what we should be doing.”

They said the thieves hit weekly, day and night.

“All I know is that they don’t seem to be breaking into the box,” said Daniel Makieve. “They’re able to open the box, swing the doors open and scoop the mail out.”

The neighbors said they would rather not have any mailbox, than a cluster box with the master key in the hands of criminals.

“Do we need to hire security to stand here at each of our cluster boxes to protect our mail? Protect our identity?” Vicki Rondeau said.

Rondeau said they are stealing bank cards and other cards are not getting delivered to the rightful owners.

“The Mother’s Day cards have been stolen,” she said.

The residents ask why can’t the postal office change the locks or the boxes, since the same master key works on hundreds of boxes.

They realize it would be expensive but they say they are losing thousands of dollars themselves.

You can report mail theft to the U.S. Postal Service by phone.

The number is 877-876-2455 and is open 24 hours a day.

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