Police are still searching for a gang of thieves who stole a master key to raid mailboxes in a Santa Clara apartment complex.
At approximately 3:30 a.m. on August 5, video footage shows a masked thief entering the mail room at the Boulevard Condominium complex in Santa Clara, near El Camino Real and Scott Boulevard. Armed with a postal worker’s key, the thief robs the mailboxes of 130 residents, stealing mail, from packages to driver’s licenses and debit and credit cards.
Alex Salzmann, who lives in the complex and sits on the complex’s board of directors, said the complex’s mail carrier notified one of the residents about the theft after the mail carrier’s supervisor ignored the problem.
SPONSORED
“You can open them with just the turn of a key,” he said. “If you open 130 mailboxes, you expect to find mail left over. It’s been completely emptied.”
Salzmann, who has since replaced his mailbox with a private one, said that for the thief, possession of the key would be like being offered the mail “on a silver platter.”
The discourse surrounding the postal service has largely been “hijacked,” said Salzmann, and the focus has been on diversionary tactics such as electric vehicles or Saturday operations.
“That’s the really frustrating thing when you hear from the USPS; they talk about efficiency,” he said. “They don’t talk about the packages not being secured.”
Uday Chaka, founder and CEO of Sentry AI, the complex’s security company, said police told him they were looking for several suspects.
“It’s not just one man… I think there’s a whole criminal operation behind it,” he said.
Inquiries to the Santa Clara Police Department indicate that the crime is still under investigation.
Matthew Norfleet, a postal inspector with the San Francisco division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, called mail theft a “widespread problem” that the postal service is all too aware of.
“The acquisition of keys through robberies has increased dramatically in the last four years,” he said.
According to the United States Postal Inspection Service, mail theft increased 139% between 2019 and 2020.
According to Norfleet, the post office is looking into various solutions, including electronic locks, but implementing such a change will take a long time. Police and postal inspectors advise citizens to check their mail daily.
“There are millions of mailboxes across the country that work with keys, so it’s going to be a while before electronic locks replace standard keys,” Norfleet said. “If there’s no mail in the mailboxes, when thieves steal the mail, they’re not getting debit cards, checks or credit cards and they have no incentive to come back.”
Chaka said Sentry AI uses technology as a deterrent and to gather as much information as possible to help police make arrests. His company provides security for several properties in the Bay Area, and Santa Clara isn’t the only place struggling with mail theft.
“Every property we’ve spoken to has had mail stolen. It’s so widespread that people don’t even report it anymore,” he said.
He said it was the most important security issue.
The challenge, Chaka said, is that thieves often scout areas, making enforcement difficult. His company offers a “unique” technological solution that creates redundancies in surveillance and “fights crime at its core” to give police enough evidence to make an arrest.
“(The thief) waits until a security guard is gone, and he knows he has the rest of the night,” Chaka said. “What you have to do is show them that this is not going to pay off.”
For example, he said, several cameras managed to capture the license plate even though the thief had spray-painted the security camera lens.
Salzmann said police told him they had come across a falsely rented apartment that they believed was the ring’s headquarters.
Norfleet also advised people not to confront anyone accessing mailboxes who is obviously not a postal worker.
“These are criminals. They are dangerous. They are often armed. Don’t confront them. The mail is not worth getting shot over,” Norfleet said. “We can replace those checks and cards. We can’t replace anyone who gets hurt.”
Norfleet urged anyone who has had mail stolen to call (877) 876-2455 or visit uspis.gov after calling police.
More crime articles:
Fourth suspect arrested in Sunnyvale murder case
Former Santa Clara police officer Gilbert avoids prison sentence
Arrests after break-in at a jewelry store
SPONSORED
