Mail thief caught on camera in Beacon Hill

SEATTLE — A mail thief was caught on camera in Beacon Hill around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday. KIRO 7 obtained the video which shows the man breaking into dozens of mailboxes and walking off with what's inside.

This all happened at the Maple Leaf apartments in the 3000 block of South 14th Avenue in Seattle. The incident also went well beyond taking the mail, according to property managers.

The site manager estimates that the thief did thousands of dollars in damage. He forced the door to the apartment complex open and broke into the mailboxes.

At one point in the video the thief even saw that he was on camera and appeared to simply not care; he can be seen rifling through mail and running off with it.

In a twist, the mail thief sported a Santa-style bag with a festive Santa design. Property manager David Cho is the one who alerted KIRO 7 to the video and even narrated the video for us when he played it at the apartment building.

"My mail is right here. I'm 301 and I didn't get any mail, he probably took it too,” said resident Marlon Lopez.

Lopez is a building manager. He says a quick glance around the building Thursday morning brought him to the mailboxes where he saw mail strewn all over the floor. He checked the video recordings and saw the thief running into the night with a sack of mail. “I think that's sad because we have 35 units in here ... they're missing some mail, gift cards, credit cards, some maybe mail from their families loved ones.”

Cho said the thief only took specific mail. “We do a lot of property management but this guy is pretty good for what he's doing. I've seen people take forever.”

Lopez estimates the thief caused about $5,000 in damage in a few minutes. He added that the brazen mail thief has created a situation where mail service could be suspended for nearly everyone in the building and residents may have to go to the post office to pick up their mail. Asked whether the thief could try again, Lopez wasn’t sure. “I hope not. I mean, if he's coming back, he's brave,” he said.

The managers said they called the police and were going to tell their postal delivery person about the incident; stolen mail is investigated by the US Postal Inspection Service.

Cox Media Group