Postal Vehicles Secured to Curb Rash of Thefts

The Postal Service is installing extra security devices on thousands of its delivery Jeeps throughout the Los Angeles area to combat a “loosely knit group” believed responsible for an unprecedented rash of mail thefts.

The group, which often recruits illegal aliens to rifle postal vehicles in search of government checks, apparently has pulled off more than 30 such crimes in the last six months, Postal Inspector Jim Griffin said Wednesday. Seven men have been arrested in three locations, but the ringleaders have not been identified, he said.

Los Angeles Postmaster Charles King said that dead-bolt locks and strongboxes already have been installed on 1,200 postal Jeeps in the downtown and South-Central areas, where the thefts first were concentrated, at a cost of $340 per vehicle. But as soon as those devices were installed, the thieves moved to outlying areas, the postal officials said.

“It’s hard to say where they’ll strike next,” Griffin said, noting that there have been thefts fitting the same pattern in Downey, Compton, Huntington Park, Hollywood, Lynwood, Van Nuys, Norwalk, Long Beach, Gardena, Glendale, Azusa and elsewhere.

Another 3,000 Jeeps in outlying areas will soon be fitted with new locks, and 600 of those also are receiving the strongboxes, which secure mail trays within the vehicles, Griffin said.

Although thefts from mailboxes are common, especially in areas where many people receive government checks, the recent incidents are unusual, King and Griffin said.

“We wouldn’t normally have break-ins to Jeeps,” Griffin said. “When there is a break-in of this type, the volume taken is quite large. It usually is a matter of taking two or three (checks) in a neighborhood, not a whole mail tray.”

The thefts have been concentrated around the 1st and 15th days of the month, when Social Security and welfare checks arrive, postal officials said. Jeeps are broken into while mail carriers are delivering letters on foot, the mail trays stolen and the checks removed. Usually, the rest of the mail is discarded and is recovered nearby.

Griffin said the timing and similarity of the crimes--with carloads of men seen following mail vehicles in neighborhoods with high concentrations of senior citizens--led authorities to conclude that “it appears to be a loosely knit group.”

“It’s not the people stealing that are cashing the checks,” Griffin said, adding that the thieves pass the stolen checks to the ringleaders, who “know where to go to cash their checks.” He did not detail how the checks might be cashed.

King said that 20 of his Jeeps in downtown and South-Central Los Angeles were burglarized in one month before the locks and boxes were installed. But since the security measures were completed in that area in March, none of the Jeeps have been broken into, although two station wagons were rifled in the South-Central area when their windows were smashed.

Sees a Slowdown

“The average thief doesn’t want to spend a lot of time around the postal vehicles,” King said. “I wouldn’t say it’s a complete deterrent, but we’ve slowed them down.

“We decided that the best deterrent was to improve the box,” he said. “That was a good amount of money, but not compared to what the break-ins cost.”

Authorities do not know how many Social Security, retirement or welfare checks have been taken or how much money has been lost. Individuals whose checks were stolen can get new ones issued, they noted, but the process can take months.

The first arrest for the break-ins came in April in Downey. Three other men were arrested in Huntington Park in June, and another three in Hollywood this month.

The man arrested in Downey and two of the men arrested in Hollwyood were found to be illegal aliens and have been deported, Griffin said. The other man arrested in Hollywood has been charged with mail theft.

In the Huntington Park thefts, one man pleaded guilty to mail theft and another to possession of stolen mail. Both will be sentenced Sept. 8. The third man arrested there pleaded innocent to one count each of mail theft and conspiracy.

Stealing mail or possession of stolen mail is punishable by up to five years in federal prison.