Video Berlin police released captures a passenger in a white, four-door sedan stealing mail out of a Berlin mailbox.
The video, which Berlin police posted on YouTube, shows the car pull up to a mailbox on Linden Drive and stop as someone in the passenger seat opens the mail box and takes the mail. Then the vehicle drives away.
Mail was stolen from Summit Woods Drive around the corner, as well.
Doug Sanders, who lives on that Berlin street, said his wife came home one day and the mailbox was empty. He went right to the police.
Some of the purloined letters have been found. Sanders got a knock on the door a day later.
"A neighbor came by with a pile of mail, wet mail, that they found a half mile away from here," Sanders said.
Mail from all over the neighborhood was in the pile, including the package he was missing. But something inside the package was missing too.
"Since our check was missing, all I can believe is that they are doing something with the check," Sanders said.
So, he checked with neighbors to see if anyone had security cameras and around the corner someone did, so he brought it to the police department's attention.
"The video was time stamped and date stamped so they know exactly when they were in the neighborhood exactly," he said.
As police work to figure out who stole the mail, the postal inspection service is urging those in the neighborhood, like Sanders, to take precautions when it comes to protecting their mai.
"I don't want to go the PO box route. I might consider a lockable mailbox, which some of our neighbors have," Sanders said.
Berlin resident Bob Mozzicato said "it's concerning when you see someone in the middle of the day open up a mailbox and take the mail out."
If police do catch who is responsibile, stealing mail is a federal offense punishable by up to 5 years in prison with fines of up to $250,000.
Police ask anyone who sees a car that looks like this vehicle to call Berlin police at 860-828-7080 imediately, particularly if they see it driving slowly.
