New Milford Police are looking for the person or persons who they say looted several mailboxes along Upper Reservoir Road and other streets on Monday. They say in some cases, the thieves stole money out of a greeting card and took a returned eBay item worth $50.
Police say lots of discarded mail was found nearby.
Diane Ridgeway was one of the victims. "It's terrible," she said. "Why would you do something like that?"
She ended up receiving most of her mail back. Her neighbor found it and delivered it to her with a note. Ridgeway says it doesn't appear that anything of value was taken, although some Christmas cards had been ripped open.
Captain Michael Mrazik of New Milford Police says this is a serious offense and the charges start at larceny but don't end there: "They are tampering with the US government mail and there are felony charges against that."
Several neighbors who live on Ridgeway's block were surprised. Dennis Brooks says nothing like this has ever happened in the 40 years he's been living there. "It's bad news, it's very bad news."
Police are cautioning people in New Milford to pick up their mail shortly after it's delivered if they can. And they say if anyone sees anything suspicious, to give them a call. And Captain Mrazik has a message for the grinch who stole Christmas cards: "The items don't belong to you. You should leave them alone. You're ruining someone else's holidays."
