Mail Thieves

M

Mainsail

Young grasshopper
Jul 28, 2019
64
22
Puget Sound
Seems to happen a lot around Christmas, but other times as well.

I currently have a Dahua bullet camera in a hollow log, one of three hollow logs in a log pile, that captured video of the thieves.

Last week I missed the action by about 10 minutes, but called the Sheriff's Dept and they sent me to the non-emergency line. So I drove around until I found the guy and called them again. Someone must have been in the area because they trapped one or two down a dead-end subdivision, while I was tracking a third into a nearby apartment complex. I lost him in behind the buildings, but the deputies caught two. They even posted the body-cam footage of the take-down. The thieves were all riding electric scooters. They had over 140 pieces of mail on them.

This morning I was disappointed to see a car pull up at 4:40am and someone get out and hit the gang-box again. I think they have a master key.

Here's a screen-shot from the log pile camera. It lets me know something happened, but too dark to provide any details.

1767299214412.png

What I'd like to do is maybe try a trail-cam, something that can capture a license plate.

Yeah, I need it to be kinda low budget. I would need it hidden and battery powered. About 60 feet from the house, no power out there.

Also, I would love to hear any better ideas. I'm thinking of putting up a solar powered light on a pole near the box, thinking that more light will make the camera I have better able to see and pick up details.
View attachment MailTheftMP4.mp4
 
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Mainsail said:
Seems to happen a lot around Christmas, but other times as well.

I currently have a Dahua bullet camera in a hollow log, one of three hollow logs in a log pile, that captured video of the thieves.

Last week I missed the action by about 10 minutes, but called the Sheriff's Dept and they sent me to the non-emergency line. So I drove around until I found the guy and called them again. Someone must have been in the area because they trapped one or two down a dead-end subdivision, while I was tracking a third into a nearby apartment complex. I lost him in behind the buildings, but the deputies caught two. They even posted the body-cam footage of the take-down. The thieves were all riding electric scooters. They had over 140 pieces of mail on them.

This morning I was disappointed to see a car pull up at 4:40am and someone get out and hit the gang-box again. I think they have a master key.

Here's a screen-shot from the log pile camera. It lets me know something happened, but too dark to provide any details.

View attachment 235513

What I'd like to do is maybe try a trail-cam, something that can capture a license plate.

Yeah, I need it to be kinda low budget. I would need it hidden and battery powered. About 60 feet from the house, no power out there.

Also, I would love to hear any better ideas. I'm thinking of putting up a solar powered light on a pole near the box, thinking that more light will make the camera I have better able to see and pick up details.
View attachment 235514
Click to expand...

"About 60 feet from the house, no power out there."

If you own the property, I would consider running power and cat6 to the box ..

In the meanwhile, I would put 2 trail cameras on the boxes ..
 
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mat200 said:
"About 60 feet from the house, no power out there."

If you own the property, I would consider running power and cat6 to the box ..

In the meanwhile, I would put 2 trail cameras on the boxes ..
Click to expand...
The gang-box is across a sidewalk, so I'd have to burrow under that to get power or Cat5 'at' the gang-box.

The tricky part is getting something out there that won't itself just get stolen. The log-pile camera is completely unnoticeable unless you were to actually wonder why there's a log pile located there...

Here's a full shot:

1767304808505.png

I'd love to set a camera right on top of the stop sign (about 10' to the right just out of view of the camera) but that would likely get stolen. I have trees in the area so maybe a game camera. Will a game camera be able to see the plate though, or will I just end up with more quasi-usable evidence like the above?
 
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Mainsail said:
The gang-box is across a sidewalk, so I'd have to burrow under that to get power or Cat5 'at' the gang-box.

The tricky part is getting something out there that won't itself just get stolen. The log-pile camera is completely unnoticeable unless you were to actually wonder why there's a log pile located there...

Here's a full shot:

View attachment 235523

I'd love to set a camera right on top of the stop sign (about 10' to the right just out of view of the camera) but that would likely get stolen. I have trees in the area so maybe a game camera. Will a game camera be able to see the plate though, or will I just end up with more quasi-usable evidence like the above?
Click to expand...

some have made custom boxes to hold cameras at the mailbox ..

Dig around for the few threads / posts on them .. some really solid talented folks here shared what they did.

Perhaps setting up something on this side of the sidewalk so you do not need to route under the sidewalk ?

maybe a light pole of some sort ?
 
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CCTVCam said:
Can't you change the lock on your mailbox & give a key to the mail man?
Click to expand...
The gang-box has a front and a back. The front faces the street and has the main door which exposes all eight individual boxes. The back, on the sidewalk side, has the eight individual doors which are all keyed differently. When the postal worker drives up on the street side she uses a master key which opens the big door, removes outgoing mail and deposits in incoming mail, then she closes and locks it again.

The thieves appear to have the master key to the big door.

Other gang-boxes in the neighborhood, and all over town really, have different configurations. Some have a main door on the same side as the individual doors, some have parcel boxes built in; the common denominator is the postal access door uses a master key to allow the worker to feed the individual boxes with one opening.
 
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