Anonymous
Source: Santa Barbara Police Department
The Santa Barbara Police Department would like to remind and inform its citizens of an increase in mail theft within our City as well as in various counties in the state. Offenders are targeting mailboxes to obtain personal information, personal and business checks, and various other details that can be utilized to their advantage. This release is only to make the public aware and to suggest prevention options. A list of suggestions to deter these crimes are as follows:
- A mailbox that can be secured with a key or other locking device.
- Deposit outgoing mail directly to the post office attendant or other secured depository.
- Request to pick up checks at your banking establishment rather than receiving them in the mail.
- Place a vacation hold on all mail when leaving for an extended period of time from your residence.
- When your schedule allows, do not leave your mail overnight in your mailbox.
If you are a victim of mail theft and/or concerned about possible identity theft, please see the below suggestions:
- Visit https://www.identitytheft.gov/ to report and recover from identify theft. This website is managed by the Federal Trade Commission and can provide a recovery plan and answer frequently asked questions.
- Contact the major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) to freeze your credit to prevent suspects from opening accounts with your personal identifying information.
- Consider enrollment in identity theft protection services.
My Nextdoor site has nearly daily reports of car thefts. Many of these are brazenly on camera, yet it seems few get reported to the PD because the PD refuses to do anything other than collect a web report which seems to go straight in the trash. 100% of these thefts are crimes of opportunity, unlocked cars, valuable left in plain site, nice bikes sitting unguarded. You are the only one who can prevent these thefts while our police are making funny videos and reporting ever lower crime stats to the city council.
More likely biker meth from San Bernardino or Riverside.
Maybe your driveway is waaayyy too long. My mailman (USPS) and all the bigs (FedEx, UPS) delivery guys bring boxes to the front door. Only TRAC or DHL are afraid to push the 4’6″ gate to my front yard lest there is a killer rabbit or anaconda hiding in the bushes and just drop the package over the gate.
Forget who is supplying it. Focus on demand. Americans love their meth. We could stop the drug trade today if we could figure out why so many of our neighbors want to get high.
Lower East Side the other day looking up my driveway Hispanic male adult or possibly Middle Eastern Male Adult in his early 20’s probably 5’5 or 6 short black hair with a nice looking painted over Stump Jumper grey. it had saddle bags, and a bag on the bars. He was wearing black shorts, a dark shirt at Mail delivery time no doubt package thief casing.
We don’t have mail thieves on my street, we have a new mail carrier that cannot seem to deliver the mail to the correct address. The mail is mixed up every day. Some days we get no mail at all, only to find out our neighbors 3 houses away got it. This is a daily occurrence. It cannot be that difficult.
This kind of crime is an indication of drug abuse, namely Meth-heads. Where does meth come from? Street gangs who are supplied, for the most part, by Mexican made Meth.
USPS deliveries of packages are usually dumped half-way up my driveway in full view of the street, unlike FexEX and UPS who seem capable of walking all the way to the porch and placing boxes out of sight. That will change, however, as seasonal hires come on for the holidays. Then they will also dump packages where they are “attractive nuisance” bait for passers-by.
Same. Not to mention receiving mail from past tenants and not forwarding mail from previous addresses. Horrible service.