Smash-and-Grab Postal Thieves Strike Again in Prime Check-Mailing Time

A Westminster postal delivery car was robbed Wednesday in the latest in a string of 16 smash-and-grab mail thefts that have plagued Orange County since October.

In Wednesday’s theft, about 50 Social Security, Internal Revenue and government pension checks were stolen, along with about 500 pieces of first-class mail, said U.S. Postal Inspector Steve Schneringer.

“The first and the third of the month are check days, and everybody knows that--at least the crooks do,” he said.

According to Schneringer, from 1985 to 1987, the county averaged only about three or four mail thefts a year.

The reason for the sharp increase in this type of crime, said Schneringer, is that thieves moved south after the Postal Service invested $384,000 in reinforcing Los Angeles mail Jeeps with dead vault Yale locks and a plywood safety lid in the rear compartment.

But, the inspector said, there are no plans to improve the security of mail deliveries in Orange County.

Such measures are not necessary in Orange County, Schneringer said, because instead of Jeeps, county couriers use Chevy Chevettes, which are more difficult to break into.

“The ultimate solution would be an armored car or a tank, but we’re not going to do that,” said Schneringer.

Instead, he said, postal inspectors will concentrate their efforts on urging the check-cashing community to be on the alert for stolen checks and the fake identification cards that usually accompany them.

“If the checks weren’t so easy to negotiate, there wouldn’t be much of a problem,” he said.

While the number of mail thefts has risen lately in this county, since the security measures were adopted in Los Angeles, the number of thefts in the Los Angeles, Ventura, Riverside and Orange County region has dropped from an average of 20 a month to 10 a month, Schneringer said.

Wednesday’s robbery was typical, Schneringer said: According to witnesses, four men approached the delivery car, which was parked at Barney Street and Abbey Drive at 11:55 a.m., while the courier was out of sight making door-to-door deliveries.

The robbers smashed the left rear window and escaped with the booty in a cream-colored Toyota with a license plate covered by a blue cloth.

The incident is probably related to two other thefts in San Pedro on Wednesday, said Schneringer, and the thieves could be part of what he described as a “loosely knit gang of illegal aliens.