If you need any more reasons to get a locking mailbox, this
lady’s purse should provide a plethora of them.
Here’s the scoop: The purse was left behind Feb. 5 by a woman fleeing Walmart in Port Orchard. She’d been spotted stealing computer software and when a store loss prevention employee intercepted her, she made a bee-line for a car, according to Kitsap County Sheriff’s reports.
She dropped the purse in her flight. In doing so, she helped deputies solve a slew of crimes.
Here’s what was inside:
- Twleve US Savings bonds worth almost $4,000 that had been reported in a burglary earlier this year;
- Some meth;
- Jewelry from the aforementioned burglary, as well as receipts, bills and documents from it;
- Three residents’ Washington ID cards (none of which were hers);
- A Washington state Fraternal Order of Police card belonging to an NCIS agent;
- A Fed Ex package containing a man’s military service record;
- Someone else’s IRS W-2 form;
- Check stock used to make checks, along with five checks from five different accounts;
- And finally, the likely tipoff to just how she got hold of all this stuff in the first place: A notebook that had many addresses of estate sales and, most notably, addresses of where to “check mailboxes,” deputies said.
Mail theft’s not a new phenomenon. You may recall a few years ago my story on a man who supported a meth habit by actually creating files for each person’s mail that he stole.
Mail theft, from what I can tell by reading police reports from around the county, appears to be on the rise again. And they’re not just taking mail, but packages left on front porches (For instance, the package found in this purse likely falls in that category).
A sheriff’s deputy worked to return all of the personal items found in her purse. And while she got away at Walmart, police eventually found the suspect (through a tip). She was booked into the Kitsap County jail early Wednesday, where she remains on $40,000 bail.
Have I sold you on getting a locking mail box yet?
