Crime Report: Sheriff’s officials receive several reports of mailbox vandalism

Sept. 12

Vandalism, mailbox: 200 block of Tondolea Lane. A woman told deputies that the day before, her father had noticed mail strewn in various bushes in the neighborhood with her name on it. When he went to check her mailbox, he noticed the lock had been tampered with the door pried open. The victim reported her paycheck is usually mailed to her but that she wasn’t expecting anything important. She said the mailbox next to hers was also broken into.

Vandalism, mailbox: 4600 block of Hillard Avenue. A man reported his neighbors contacted him at around 5 p.m that day to let him know his mailbox was vandalized. He noticed the bottom key lock was broken and the latch open. There were obvious pry marks around the box. The man said he didn’t know if anything was taken, but said several other mailboxes in the neighborhood also appeared to have pry marks on them.

Sept. 14

Vandalism mailbox: 1600 block of Earlmont Avenue. A woman reported on Sept. 14 that sometime between 4 p.m. on Sept. 10 and 4 p.m. Sept. 12, someone pried open her mailbox on the east side of her residence, where it is mounted alongside several other boxes. She said there was mail still inside the box, although she didn’t know if something might have been taken. A call to her credit card company confirmed no fraudulent activity had occurred. The victim said she talked to her neighbors, who didn’t report seeing anything unusual and had no damage done to their mailboxes.

Vandalism mailbox: Four additional reports of mailboxes being pried open or broken into at approximately the same time frame were reported to the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station on the same day.

A woman on the 200 block of Tondolea Lane said sometime between 6:30 p.m. the night before and 6:30 a.m. Sept. 14, someone broke the lock on her box by prying open the door. She didn’t know if anything had been taken.

In that same time period, a man living on the 4600 block of Castle Lane said someone pried open the door of his mailbox and stole mail from inside.

A woman on the 1900 block of Tondolea Lane went to retrieve her mail at around 5 p.m. the same day and found the mailbox was open and its locking mechanism bent forward. The box was one of eight mailboxes mounted side-by-side.

A man living on the 5400 block of Palm Drive said he discovered his mailbox had been pried open when he went to retrieve his mail at around 3:30 p.m. that day. His mailbox was one of several mounted together in a concrete pad.

Petty theft: 5400 block of Ocean View Boulevard. A woman told deputies that on Sept. 2 she used a phone app to sell a pair of shoes, and sold the shoes to another user registered with the same phone app, establishing an agreed upon price and shipping address.

The buyer later complained, through the app, that he/she was not satisfied with the shoes received. When the victim received the “returned” shoes in the mail, she noticed they were not the ones she originally sold, but an old, worn pair of shoes likely previously owned by the buyer.

She tried to contact the other person but got no response. She also had trouble notifying the operators of the app about what had happened, so she reported the incident to the sheriff’s department.

Sept. 15

Petty theft, mail: 800 block of Flintridge Avenue. A woman reported that sometime between 4 p.m. on Sept. 12 and 2 p.m. that day, someone broke into her mailbox and stole her mail from inside. Deputies observed the lock had been removed and pieces of it were laying on the ground. The box itself appeared slightly bent, as if it had been pried open.

Petty theft, packages: 4900 block of Alminar Avenue. A man told deputies sometime between 11:45 a.m. and 3 p.m. that day, someone stole three packages from his front porch. He said he believed the suspect(s) may have been looking for a FedEx package containing a fraudulently opened credit card in the victim’s name and may have mistaken a package containing four pairs of running socks for that one.

Sept. 17

Petty theft, packages: 4800 block of Commonwealth Avenue. A woman reported that on Sept. 14, between 1 and 6 p.m., someone stole two packages from Amazon that were on her front porch. The packages contained a copper cookware set, vitamins and mailing envelopes. She said she’d also ordered three items on Ebay, including hair clips and vitamins, and that all items were scheduled to be delivered on Sept. 14.

The victim checked her porch at 1 p.m. and did not see any items there. After she checked again at 6 p.m., to no avail, she checked the electronic tracking system, which indicated two packages had been left at the front door. When she called Amazon, she was informed a driver left a package at her home on Sept. 14, but was not able to determine an exact time.

Compiled by Sara Cardine