"A warning posted at his condo complex last summer said someone was stealing mail from these boxes; because of the lack of forced entry on the boxes, the thieves appeared to be using a master key to get in. Residents should remove their mail promptly before thieves could get it. Arndt wanted to do more. 'What we have to do also is catch the criminals, you know, if someone's doing this...' he said."
"And two days later, in the dark of night, he got his first catch. "It's always really early when no one's here," Arndt said. The video shows someone casually walking up to the boxes at about 1 a.m., and swiping outgoing mail. Days later, his camera captured a carload of thieves clad in white hoodies, pulling up at 3 a.m. -- one acting as a lookout while the others cleaned out mailboxes."
Mail theft increasingly targets housing complexes with clustered mailboxes, with thieves using stolen master keys to open entire banks of boxes. Residents at a San Jose condominium began using P.O. boxes and removing mail promptly after a warning noted lack of forced entry indicating master key use. One homeowner, Jim Arndt, installed a roof-mounted camera that overlooks the mailbox bank and recorded multiple thefts occurring in the early morning hours. Video footage shows individuals casually removing outgoing mail around 1 a.m. and groups arriving in cars around 3 a.m., wearing hoodies and masks while one person acts as a lookout.
Read at ABC7 San Francisco
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