By Ruth Longoria
Island resident Adam Cooper received a phone call from his bank one night a few weeks ago. Someone had charged several thousand dollars to his credit card and was attempting to add more purchases to Cooper’s account. Apparently the suspect found Cooper’s information when they stole mail from boxes on his block on Boulevard Place the month before. The bank noticed the suspicious card activity and notified Cooper.
That doesn’t always happen so quickly. Many times people don’t notice they’ve become the victim of mail and identity theft until a year or more later, when they attempt to open a new account or happen to see a copy of their credit report, said Mercer Island Police Det. Pete Erickson.
Cooper’s neighbor, John Ewald, also has been a victim of stolen mail. About three years ago, Puyallup police notified Ewald after they arrested a man on drug charges and found a large pile of stolen mail in the suspect’s home, some of which was addressed to Ewald. Recently thieves stole more mail from Boulevard Place, prompting neighbors to band together and find what looks to be a solution to the problem of pilfered paperwork.
Twenty-five Boulevard Place residents recently installed locking mailboxes. Locking boxes could potentially put an end to a lot of crime on the Island, agreed law enforcement and postal authorities who met informally last week to discuss ways to deal with an increase of crime on the Island.
Crime on the Island increased 69.5-percent from 2003 to 2004. Not all of that can be attributed to stolen mail, but it’s a big part of the problem, said Ron Elsoe, public safety director for the Mercer Island police department.
Locking mailboxes and locked car doors could be the deterrent needed to stop the Island from being the easy target criminals now take it for, he said.
“It’s not just an Island problem, but mailsters know it’s easy to get mail here,” Erickson interjected. “Some of our boxes are easy targets. And, the crooks know that. They say: `Mailboxing is easy on the Island. They get bigger convenience checks there.’ ”
“Mailboxing,” “mailsters,” and “fraudsters” is part of the lingo in what Erickson calls “the beginning of a sort of loosely organized crime.”
And, he added, the criminals aren’t out to steal personal letters. There are between two and 10 incidents of mail theft and myriad vehicle prowls reported on the Island every week. Those low exposure crimes can be part of a chain that leads to much larger crimes, such as drug trafficking. The stolen paperwork provides personal information. Stolen identities can be sold to criminals further up the chain, thereby perpetuating bigger crimes, Erickson said.
Mailsters steal paperwork, such as bank statements, retirement information, utility bills, credit card applications and convenience checks (the checks credit card companies provide applicants to pay off other loans or receive cash from an account). Criminals may rifle through an unlocked car or break into a house and steal registration or insurance papers. Many times when a home is broken into the occupants think nothing is stolen because the jewelry or silver is still in its place. And, when someone breaks into a car, and only goes through the glove box, vehicle owners often think they didn’t lose anything of value, but, that’s not necessarily true, Elsoe said.
“Consider what you keep in your car, ” said Island Police Commander Ed Holmes. “Insurance, registration, a lot of the time there’s even car or house keys in there. It used to be they’d just steal the car stereo. Now you think they didn’t steal anything and they got your whole life history. Then they cull the profile and sell that to the fraudster.”
As Cooper found out, there can be huge economic losses down the road. Fortunately for him, the bank was able to identify the fraudulent charges and credit back the funds.
“But, it could have been awful,” Cooper said. “The robbers cleared out my bank accounts in about 24 hours time.”
Now, Cooper and Ewald happily open their new locking mailboxes each day to pick up their mail.
“It’s reassuring to open your box — and, there is your mail,” Ewald said.
Post office representatives were helpful in assisting the neighborhood to acquire U.S. Postal approved boxes, he said. The boxes cost residents about $144 each, minus a discount because so many neighbors purchased boxes together. The locking boxes have slightly more space than a typical residential box and are designed with an opening — similar to the drop box opening on the large blue U.S. Post Office boxes on some street corners — so mail can be deposited through the top, but a hand won’t fit into the opening to remove mail.
Elsoe said he’d like to see everyone on the Island get a locking mailbox. But, since that isn’t likely to occur right away, he suggests neighbors keep an eye out for one another. And, don’t be afraid to dial 9-1-1 immediately when you see someone stopping and opening several mailboxes along your block. All postal carriers on the Island drive official post office vehicles, so if someone is in a non-marked vehicle, they aren’t delivering mail, he added.
On the Island, there are 8,604 residential and 418 businesses with locking mailboxes. There are 1,343 rented boxes at the post office, with another six currently vacant.
However, there is space available to add more boxes in the lobby, if requested, said Mercer Island Postmaster Doug Stephens, who added that carriers are doing everything possible to assure the safety of Islander’s mail.
“We try to be consistent and have mail delivered by 5 p.m., but when you’ve got bad people out there stealing mail, there’s not much we can do to stop them other than suggest people get locking boxes,” Stephens said.
About half of Island residents have mailboxes that can’t be locked, Holmes said. “There’s still 4,384 non-locking residential boxes,” he said. “For mailsters, that’s more than 4,000 targets.”
