6 People Arrested For Mail Fishing Outside Newton Post Office
NEWTON (CBS) -- Six people were arrested early Tuesday for trying to steal mail from a mailbox outside of the Newtonville Post Office. The suspects face several charges including breaking and entering and larceny.
"What those suspects were doing at the mailbox was something they call fishing and they place a device -- whether it's a water bottle some other type of thing with a sticky substance on it -- they place it into the mailbox and on a string, they pull it out. When that comes out, letters are attached to it, other types of mail, some containing personal information: checks, information regarding your social security, credit card information," said Newton Police Lt. Bruce Apotheker.
Two of the suspects are from the Boston area and four are from New York. Their ages range from 18 to 22.
According to police, mail fishing has been an ongoing problem in the area and there has been an uptick recently. They made a similar arrest about eight months ago.
"We just want to remind people that these things do occur and you have to take precautions just like you take precautions on the internet to avoid your identity being stolen," said Apotheker.
"When you are putting your mail into a post office box, look at the pickup time, if pickup time is 5 o'clock on a Friday, last pickup and the next pickup is not until Monday morning at 8 o'clock, you may want to hold off in placing that mail there."
Steve Logowitz is glad Newton Police were able to make the arrests because he has been a victim of mail theft. He told WBZ-TV someone cashed checks he mailed out just last month.
"Because of the problem, I'm going inside to mail them there. I'm not using any public mailboxes anyway more," said Logowitz. "I've spent many hours on the phone. I had to get affidavits from my local bank. I had to get a police report from the local police."
A woman said, "To steal somebody's identity I worry about that, but I always take my mail inside,"
Anyone with information about fishing incidents is asked to call police.
