Teens arrested after stealing mail from Burbank homes

Two female juveniles were arrested over the weekend for identity theft after allegedly taking mail from nine homes, police said.

An elderly female heard someone at her mailbox Saturday at approximately 11:30 a.m., and initially thought the mail carrier had delivered her mail, Sgt. Darin Ryburn said.

“She went out and spoke with her neighbors across the street who were hanging their Christmas lights,” Ryburn said.

The woman asked if they had seen anyone and got in her vehicle to locate the two teenagers.

“She saw one of the females carrying a bunch of envelopes and they were hers,” Ryburn said, adding that the woman confronted the Palmdale females, ages 16 and 17, and asked for her mail back.

The juveniles complied and the neighbors and the woman prevented the two juveniles from leaving until police showed up to Chandler Boulevard and Sparks Street.

Ryburn said the teenagers initially said they were being chased down the street by old people.

Police found a credit card in the possession of one of the girls with a different name and she could not account for whose it was. A gift card and $5 in cash were also in the teens’ possession.

Mail was taken from a total of nine homes, and Ryburn said police also searched the area and found empty envelopes in a trash can that had been ripped open in the 700 to 800 block of Griffith Park Drive and the 700 to 800 block of Beachwood Drive.

The juveniles were cited, arrested on suspicion of identity theft, a felony, and then released to their parents, Ryburn said.

-- Maria Hsin, Times Community News

Twitter: @mariahsin