PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — Mail theft is on the rise in Pierce County as people have begun filing their tax returns, investigators said.
Pierce County investigators said they typically receive one to two calls a month about mail theft from March to December. However, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office said deputies are seeing a recent spike.
“But January and February, it’s like several calls in a day for mail theft. So the numbers are significantly up for January and February,” said Carly Cappetto, public information officer for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office.
Cappetto said thieves are dressing up in disguises to steal personal tax documents to apply for credit cards and fraudulent tax returns.
She said many suspects are focused on apartment complexes that have large community mailboxes.
“A lot of times, they try to play it off like they’re residents or construction workers in the area, trying to fix things or they’ll impersonate UPS or mail people and it makes it challenging for the public to know what’s suspicious and what’s not,” Cappetto said. “The criminals are really going after quantity versus quality, so apartment complexes and communities with large community mailboxes with 25 mailboxes combined, they’ll tear them apart, vandalize the whole thing.”
Cappetto told KIRO 7 News that a couple of apartment complexes in Pierce County, including South Hill Vintage Apartments in Puyallup, have seen multiple incidents.
Amy Oh, whose mail was stolen at South Hill Vintage Apartments, said her mother’s friend’s identity was stolen due to the recent mail thefts.
“They (mailboxes) were all open, all the mailboxes in the front looked like they were pried open,” she said. “It’s just scary. Just our information getting in there, and we don’t even know who gets it, where they get it or what they do with it.”
Oh said it didn’t just happen once, thieves broke into the mailboxes at least three times in a span of months.
“A lot of uncertainty. A lot of what’s going on? There’s this kind like paranoia,” she said. “Whenever we do send things now to anywhere, we pay extra for that signature confirmation and that certified mail that the post office does because we want it to be assured it’s there. We even watch the mailman to get here. We’re looking out of the window.”
Oh said her family switched to emails since they don’t want to risk losing their personal information, as they monitor their credit score.
“You don’t expect it to happen to you. When it does hit close to home, it’s like a wake-up call. You’re just constantly worrying or anxious. That’s always haunting you in the back of your head.”
KIRO 7 News reached out to the South Hill Vintage Apartments to get more details about the property’s recent thefts and its response. We’re still waiting to hear back.