PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. – Two guys driving through a Pembroke Pines neighborhood are committing a federal crime as they casually grab mail out of homeowners’ mailboxes.
Police are hoping someone recognizes the car that was caught on a Ring camera.
Karen Perez had her mail stolen. She’s the one that nabbed the video of the thieves on camera.
“A lot of people that probably thought their payments were going out yesterday, they didn’t go out, they got stolen,” she said.
In the video, a black car casually pulls up to the mailbox in front of her home, then the passenger reaches his arm out of the window and into her mailbox.
“He pulled the mail, which I later realized what they’re targeting is all of the mailboxes with the flag up on their mailbox,” Perez said.
They stole at least one check from her mail, she said.
The video also shows that when they are done fishing around in her mailbox, they go across the street on the other side to do the exact same thing. Only this time, it’s on the driver’s side.
“You have these two individuals working left and right from the car. If you notice, one was reaching from the passenger’s side and the other was reaching from the driver’s side,” Perez said.
She said this is the first time she’s seen them, but she doesn’t believe it is the the first time they’ve done it. She said she sent money to pay bill last week and it never arrived.
“The vendor called me to tell me he never received a payment, so I’m now starting to see that there’s a pattern going on and they’re stealing outgoing mail from the mailbox,” she said. “The payment was for $240.”
She and her neighbors have reported the mail theft to the police as well as the postal service.
Under US Code 18 Section 1708, mail theft is a punishable offense and it is defined as taking any piece of mail that is not your own for any purpose. A piece of mail can be any letter, postal card, package, box or bag. Mail theft can result from stealing from private mailboxes, collection boxes, postal workers or mail trucks. Charges for mail theft can result in up to five years in federal prison and fines of up to $250,000.
If you recognize the car or know anything about the mail thieves, Pembroke Pines police are asking you to call Broward Crimestoppers at (954) 493-8477.