PORT TOWNSEND — Along with gifts, cards, trees and lights, the beginning of the holiday season was commemorated by a series of mail thefts.
“This happens every year around Christmas and Hanukkah,” said Port Townsend Police Sgt. Ed Green.
“Christmas mail often contains cash, checks and gift cards and can be easy to identify.”
Green said several instances of mail thievery — in which when the mail was removed from boxes and discarded — was reported in the North Beach and Hastings Avenue neighborhoods.
Attorney Noah Harrison, who lives near the Jefferson County Fairgrounds, said he noticed several loose letters near his own mailbox and spotted more letters on the ground while driving from his home to the county courthouse.
“I recognized one of the names on the envelopes as someone I knew,” Harrison said.
“I thought that the most important thing was that they — and anyone else whose mail had been stolen — knows that their mail has been tampered with.”
Green said it is impossible to know what mail has not been received, since people don’t always know what is to be delivered to them.
He advised that “anyone who is expecting something from an in-law or another family member should contact the sender to find out when it should arrive.”
Green said the best preventive measure is the purchase of a locked mailbox.
If that is not possible, he said people should watch carefully for the mail truck and remove delivered mail as soon as it arrives.
Those who work during the day should “ask a neighbor that you trust” to retrieve their mail for them when it is delivered, he said.
If the postal patron has a locked mailbox for which post office personnel do not have a key, customers should send letters from the post office or another official mailbox, Green said.
Some mail has been found and is being held in the evidence locker at the Port Townsend Police Department station, 1919 Blaine St.
Green said no one had been observed in the act of stealing or opening mail.
Anyone observing such activity is asked to call the station at 360-385-2322, Green said.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.