BY BRANDY TUZON BOYD
THE NATOMAS BUZZ | @natomasbuzz
Burglars have hit more Natomas-area mailboxes.
Sometime between Thursday evening and Friday morning, a cluster mailbox on Datoni Lane and Sutley Circle were broken into in the Westlake neighborhood.
The incident is the latest in a series where thieves have broken into cluster mailboxes and stolen its contents. The U.S. Postal Service is tracking nearly 100 similar break ins in recent months, according to Capt. James Maccoun with the Sacramento Police Dept.
In an electronic message to Natomas residents last month, Vice Mayor Angelique Ashby’s office warned of the mailbox theft trend in District 1 neighborhoods.
Most break ins occur during the daytime and thieves often target outgoing mail, according to Maccoun.
“The concern there is that they’re trying to get checks,” he said. “Once they get one of your checks, they can counterfeit your check and hijack your account.”
Maccoun said it is likely more than one person or group is responsible for the mailbox break ins.
“Being that this is happening largely during the day, we really want to emphasize Neighborhood Watch groups and the power they have to reduce crime such as this,” Michel Huizar, Ashby’s constituent coordinator. “The incident reported … this morning was in Westlake and their Neighborhood Watch is fairly new, so hopefully their board can communicate with the affected block.”
One recent break in affected a cluster mailbox between Lanfranco Circle and Hebron Circle and affects mail for those living in homes between 170 and 231 Hebron Circle.
“Now more than ever, we ask that folks please be mindful so we can address this head on,” said Huizar. “We have been advised by the Post Office and the Sacramento Police Department to report any mailbox tampering you may come across.”
File an online report for the Police Department at: http://www.sacpd. org/reports/ fileonline/.
Report damaged mailboxes to your local post office.
For 3-weeks the USPS kept telling us they were waiting on parts to repair our mailbox. They lied, because all they did was hammer out the bent mail slot. There was no replacement of damaged parts. If you get tired of waiting you can fix it yourself with a hammer, that’s all they did and it took them weeks to do that.
Unfortunately, if that Postal Bill passes, the one Carper and Issa want, this could continue!