Clear your mailboxes daily! Mail thief captured on video on Bel-Air Road

A mail thief was captured by video at the 1500 block of Bel-Air Road on September 27, at approximately 4:30 AM. Another resident on the 800 block of Stradella Road witnessed someone rummaging through a neighbor’s mailbox at approximately 5:00 AM the same morning.

Please remember to clear your mailboxes every day.

Mailbox Thefts, US Postal Inspectors and LAPD

A series of mail thefts have been reported around Bel-Air.  LAPD offers clarity on what agency or department handles complaints:

If someone tampers with a blue USPS mailbox receptacle, it is a felony and the US Postal Inspector is the agency who will investigate and prosecute.

If someone tampers with your mailbox unit (not the mail inside), LAPD is the department who should be contacted and who will investigate.

If someone takes the mail from inside your mailbox, that is a felony.  LAPD will take a report that can be given to the US Postal Inspector —  but it is the US Postal Inspector who will investigate and prosecute.

The apprehension of mail thieves is difficult since many criminal rings rent cars with stolen credit cards or change out the license plates.

The Bel-Air Association urges residents to remove their mail from their mailboxes as soon as possible.

• If you have witnessed or suspected mailbox theft, please contact the US Postal Inspection Service, who has their own police and investigative unit, at https://www.uspis.gov. You can also call LAPD and they will come out and take a report of the theft to give to the US Postal Inspector.

• The link to report mail theft and fraud is https://www.uspis.gov/report/

• Please contact the Bel-Air Association office as well so we can send out alerts to the community.

• Even if you witness or suspect mail theft, also contact the LAPD Senior Lead Officer (“SLO”) for Bel-Air, Officer Pete Ojeda. His email address is 36393@lapd.online.