OXNARD : 2 Men Arrested in Postal Burglary

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of breaking into a United States postal truck in Oxnard and stealing about 1,000 pieces of mail, authorities said Friday.

Manuel Rivera, 32, of San Jose and Enrique Montoya, 22, of Los Angeles were arrested in Camarillo on suspicion of burglary, said Sgt. Keith Lazz of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. Rivera was also arrested in connection with an outstanding felony warrant from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for possession of drugs for sale, he said.

The two men were pulled over shortly after noon Thursday after a sheriff’s deputy noticed that their car was missing a gas cap and had a rag sticking out of the tank, Lazz said.

As he was questioning the men, the officer discovered the mail in the car, Lazz said. Sheriff’s officials later learned that a postal truck had been burglarized earlier in the day and that mail was missing from the truck, he said.

Venida Ordonez, manager of the Oxnard post office, said that all of the stolen mail was recovered.

She said a mail carrier was delivering mail at the time his truck was broken into. Ordonez said that the two men were probably looking for checks, possibly sent as holiday gifts. She said a similar incident happened at Christmastime two years ago.