SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio residents living in the Copper Canyon neighborhood have been dealing with thieves targeting the community mailbox for the past two years. So far, there’s been no resolution.
Surveillance cameras aren’t enough to deter such criminal activity and filing complaints with the proper authorities has led nowhere but more frustration among many, including neighbor Clem Maloy.
“It’s a little frustrating because your mail, that’s some important stuff coming in. You got checks coming in, you have stuff from Amazon coming in,” Maloy said. “I had a bunch of graphic tees coming from the mail and I’m looking for things and it’s supposed to be in there and as soon I can go in there nothing’s there.”
Andrew Gonzalez has documented the theft going back to October 2022. The aged and beat-up cluster mailbox sits along Sylhet View near Heath Road.
“It’s concerning and I can only expect this is going to get worse,” Gonzalez said. “I don’t know if the people that are stealing the mail are using the information that’s in here to apply for balance check transfers or what.”
The most recent break-in occurred just before 2:30 a.m. on June 8.
Gonzalez’s security cameras also captured the thieves in action around 7:40 a.m. on March 29 and 2:55 a.m. on May 24.
In both incidents, the operation appears to be a tag-team effort involving someone in the driver’s seat of the getaway car and another person breaking into the cluster box and collecting the mail. The March and May situations featured the same person stealing the mail.
“People come in and break into these mailboxes and it takes them 15 seconds to pop the lock,” Gonzalez said. “They open the whole cluster mailbox and they take at least 15, 20 peoples’ mail.”
Gonzalez is still waiting to hear back from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service on when they will come out to repair the cluster box.
Some neighbors would prefer the entire mailbox to be replaced with new locks. Gonzalez stressed it feels like their requests for action are met with no sense of urgency.
“The reinforcement for this latch is up here and we’ve called them multiple times to replace,” Gonzalez said. “You call the cops out you call the postal inspector. It’s like yeah they give you the runaround,” Gonzalez said. “It’s sad, they don’t follow up with you.”
KENS 5 is waiting to hear back from San Antonio police and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service on how they plan to address the repeated mail theft in the Copper Canyon neighborhood.
TRENDING:
> MORE ON KENS