A Southern California woman fed up with her packages getting stolen out of her post office box sent an Apple AirTag to the address and cleverly tracked down the suspected thief, police said.
The woman had had several items stolen from her mailbox at the Los Alamos Post Office already when she thought of the idea, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday. Apple’s $29 AirTags have become popular items since their 2021 release, helping users keep tabs on the location of anything from their lost keys to wallets and luggage.
On Monday morning, sheriff’s deputies were called to the post office where the woman told officials her mail had been stolen again — including the package with the AirTag.
I’m just glad they did something about it.
Some police departments won’t even be bothered to do anything about petty theft even if you give them a name, picture and address of the perpetrator.
Isn’t interference with mail a fairly hefty offense over there?
Yeah it’s a federal offense. That said cops can be lazy as shit and usually won’t bother to help unless you’re someone who’s important to them.
USPS does NOT fuck around with mail crimes. Reporting it to them means they’ll bring the hammer down.
Yep I had a USPS worker sign on a signature required package, had it on video.
Pretty sure he was fired because he fucked around and found out on a package I specifically requested to be signed required.
If it’s US Mail then contact the US Postal Inspection Service. They’re federal law enforcement specifically for the USPS, and they don’t fuck around.
Sure, maybe they don’t fuck around, but they also aren’t funded so they don’t do jack shit for you. Thanks DeJoy and Republicans.
Local police also aren’t generally the best to contact over federal offenses. If it’s not immediately actionable, they tend to lose interest and just shove the paperwork onto the “when we get around to it” pile
Came to say exactly this. Lots of articles about police doing fuckall when trackers show the location of stolen property.
In cases like this also contact the US Postal Inspection Service. They won’t take kindly to stolen mail, especially if it’s stolen right out of a US Post Office.
For those who aren’t aware, your mailbox is considered property of the USPS for exactly this reason. Only the people who receive mail there (and the USPS) are allowed to use it.
I’ve also seen the opposite where they’ll raid the wrong house because the tracker isn’t as accurate as it needs to be in some cases. Police seem to always take things to the extremes rather than taking a more measured approach.
In regards to mail theft, that’s usually because it’s outside of their purview; The USPS has its own dedicated police force that you should contact instead. If any part of your shipment was run through USPS, (it probably was, because FedEx and UPS both contract out a bunch of stuff to USPS), then they’ll investigate it as if it had been stolen directly from the USPS. And those investigators do not fuck around. Calling your local cops will be met with apathy, because there’s an entire federal department that could be dealing with it instead.