2 arrested, accused of stealing from Kendall mailboxes
MIAMI - Scooters were zipping around a Kendall neighborhood in the wee hours stopping at mailboxes along the way.
"There's some guys cruising around the neighborhood on scooters stealing mail," a neighbor said. He does not want to be identified. He noticed them in the neighborhood before. This time he followed them and called police.
"They're driving around with these little scooters going 30 miles an hour, basically opening everybody's mailboxes and driving down both sides of the street so they can hit both sides of the street at the same time," the neighbor said.
Daphne Roldan is under arrest. Police said they found a lot of mail on her. The same with Miguel Hernandez Sanchez. Detectives said they found 16 credit cards on him, along with mail that included social security numbers.
"The actual subject confessed that he was taking mail and using these credit cards to use it for his own pleasure to buy things with other people's identity," said Miami-Dade Police Det. Luis Sierra.
Clover Ryan knows what it feels like to be a victim of mail and identity theft. "It's very unsettling. You just don't feel safe in your own house," she said.
Thieves rifled through her mailbox 4 times in the last week and a half, once at 5 in the afternoon while she was home. Her husband saw it on the doorbell cam.
"He called me immediately, 'He's doing it again!' By the time I got up and ran out he was already gone. So we had video of him stealing mail again," she said.
Why'd he come back 4 times, Ryan believes the crook stole her identity, applied for credit cards and was coming back to pick them up.
"One had been retrieved from our mailbox and he already made charges. The second, I put the mail on hold so I was able to put it on hold before it had arrived, so he didn't get to it.
Postal inspectors say this is a growing problem — between 2018 and 2023 they've made nearly 9000 arrests nationwide.
Here's a few suggestions from the post office on how to avoid becoming the next victim. Get a mailbox with a lock on it, sign up for fraud alerts and check your credit report:
You should also pick up your mail as soon as possible, not leaving it in the box all night. Get a doorbell cam to alert you of a thief and sign up for, what's called, "Informed delivery."
"You get an email every day letting you know what is on its way to your house so you know what the post office will be delivering to your mailbox over the next day or the next few days," said U.S. Postal Inspector Bryan Masmela.
Masmela urges people to contact local police and postal inspectors if someone steals your mail.