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Mountain View police have arrested a married San Jose couple on suspicion of mail theft, following a monthslong investigation that led to the discovery of more than 1,500 pieces of stolen mail, according to a press release from the Mountain View Police Department Friday afternoon.
Since January, Mountain View detectives have been investigating reports of mail theft from the 500 block of West Middlefield Road. The investigation led to the identification of two suspects, a 47-year-old woman and 34-year-old man, the police department said.
The press release did not specify when or where the two suspects were arrested. A police department spokesperson told the Voice the information was not immediately available.
On Jan. 16, detectives carried out multiple search warrants in the Bay Area that led to the recovery of over 1,500 pieces of stolen mail, including items from more than 1,000 different addresses in Mountain View and neighboring cities. Tools and equipment to make fraudulent identification cards also were recovered, police said.
The suspects were arrested and booked into Santa Clara County Jail, police said. They are facing multiple charges, including burglary, possession of stolen property, criminal conspiracy, forgery, false impersonation and possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia, as well as mail theft and identity theft with a prior conviction.
The female suspect has an outstanding warrant from the San Francisco Police Department and the male suspect has a parole violation, according to police.
Good police work here.
You’re really not supposed to mess with the mail. If you people cannot depend on the mail, everything else starts to fall apart.
Were the two suspects involved with a more organized ring?
Will the mail-theft victims be notified of their stolen property?
I am not a lawyer, but napkin math says the maximum here federally could be 5 years x 1000 addresses stolen from = 5,000 years federally for each of the two suspects?
At https://www.keglawyers.com/mail-theft-penal-code-530-5e we can read: “””Mail Theft Is Also a Federal Crime – It should be noted that because mail theft involves the government-run U.S. Postal Service, it is also a federal crime under Title 18, U.S. Code 1708. Therefore, California’s mail theft statute refers directly to this federal law for its definition of mail theft. While the federal government typically defers to the state’s jurisdiction to prosecute mail theft and other cases where state and federal laws overlap, it’s essential to understand that if the federal government chooses to take pre-eminence, such as if mail theft crosses state lines, the penalties may be much more severe, such as up to 5 years in prison versus one year in jail.”””