Guard the mail: Officials urge vigilance as thefts continue
By Oakley Brooks
Take it from the captain himself--the rash of mail theft that has hung around Saratoga and other areas of Santa Clara County in the last several months won't simply go away, and Saratogans had best defend themselves against the problem.
Westside Sheriff's Substation Capt. Dennis Bacon, who lives in a rural area in the southern part of the county, has done his part: he no longer puts outgoing mail in his personal box, and he's purchased a paper shredder to guard against further identity theft through trash and recycling cans.
Capt. Bacon and local U.S. Postal Service officials are pushing residents to look into locked individual boxes or secure group boxes along rural routes.
They say that residents' initiative may be the strongest defense against mail theft, in which thieves seek identifying documents with personal information and/or outgoing checks to forge.
"It's a real difficult thing to prevent, short of using locking mailboxes instead of rural boxes," says Capt. Bacon.
In recent weeks, there's been another small surge of mail theft in Saratoga, spanning several different neighborhoods.
Two incidents occurred on the same block of Mount Eden Road in mid-March. Another thief hit a box in the 14000 block of Saratoga Avenue on March 22, according to a recent report given to the city by Capt. Bacon.
On March 25, a suspect stole mail on Brockton Lane, and a day later a mailbox was targeted on nearby Homes Drive.
Theft led to forgery in late March, after a suspect took four checks from a house on Baylor Avenue. On April 1, the suspect tweaked a Saratoga resident's check to pay for groceries at a Nob Hill Foods store in Milpitas. The Nob Hill clerk asked for identification and the suspect promptly left the store. But he managed to use two other checks belonging to the Saratoga victim at other stores.
Capt. Bacon reported recently that two different arrests by U.S. postal inspectors, one in San Jose and another in Santa Cruz, had turned up substantial amounts of inbound and outbound Saratoga mail.
U.S. Postal Inspector Adena Kersner, spokeswoman at the agency's San Francisco office, could not confirm any more details on the arrests or the mail.
A recent mail victim in Saratoga did spot a female suspect raiding the victim's mailbox, but no arrests have been made in that case.
To avoid the average 175 hours of mop-up work that a successful identity theft requires, Capt. Bacon and Saratoga Postmaster Curtis Jewell have joined forces to provide residents with prevention tips and resources.
If residents opt not to purchase a secure box, officials are telling them to watch for mail carriers and remove their mail immediately from a streetside or doorside box.
They are urging the public to ask mail carriers who have cell phones to help report mail thieves. In addition, residents can use the county communication center's direct line or 911 to report suspected mail thieves.
"You're not going to get in trouble dialing 911," says Capt. Bacon.
Sheriff's officials have added identity information to their neighborhood watch meetings and Jewell has also begun meeting with neighborhood associations to talk about mail and identity theft.
Sheriff's and postal officials recently told the city that they would be willing to hold a joint forum in the near future, at the Civic Theater, to discuss prevention measures.
Mail/identity theft resources
Sheriff's website:
www.santaclarasheriffwest.org/identitytheft.html
Sheriff's Westside Station County Communication Direct Line:
408.299.2311
U.S Postal Inspection Service:
408.938.4802
Saratoga, California Since 1955
