A Fremont condo community is frustrated after thieves repeatedly targeted the community’s cluster mailboxes.
A surveillance video shared with NBC Bay Area on Friday showed a pair pulling up the community mailboxes in a white SUV and using a key to access them on Friday. Mayank Chorpa, who shared the footage, said he was shocked.
“They are able to open the whole cluster box and start taking out all the stuff that’s inside,” he said.
A similar incident took place in January when thieves hauled away an entire cluster of mailboxes. Seeing it happen again in the same year has been unsettling for residents.
“You kind of feel violated, sort of,” said Samuel Shannon of Fremont.
Although Friday’s incident did not directly impact Shannon, he said he’s been on alert since the first time it happened.
“If I see I got a package while I’m at work, I’ll kind of rush home because if it gets too late in the evening, things kind of start disappearing,” he said.
According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, robberies were the fastest-growing and most common crime against postal workers. In 2023, more than 600 incidents were reported.
“The robberies have been the number one way in the Bay Area that we’ve had these keys taken. Depending on some of the older locks, there may be a counterfeit key, but the mere possession of a real or counterfeit postal key is up to ten years in federal prison. That’s another federal offense,” said U.S. postal inspector Jeff Fitch.
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Fitch said people should never engage with suspects because they are often armed. He recommended reporting the incident and capturing video if possible.
Now, Chorpa is concerned about how he is going to secure his mail.
“These things [will] probably force us to install some gates,” he said.
