DRAPER, Utah – Draper Police are ramping up patrols in some neighborhoods after seeing a spike in the number of mail thefts within city limits and parts of Utah County they patrol.
Thieves are hitting up mailboxes in Draper neighborhoods early in the morning between 4-7 a.m. What’s even more alarming for neighbors is thieves have targeted the same areas three times in the past week.
“I feel like is anything safe outside at this point,” said Heather Pulley, a Draper resident. “Do we need to have the mailman coming to our door every day to avoid this? It`s ridiculous.”
Pulley is keeping a close eye on her mail box these days, along with her neighbors. In the past week, someone’s been grabbing mail out of boxes in front of homes, and community mailboxes, and taking off with it.
“It’s not just your little drive by -- they’re actually collecting your information, they probably sell it, usually it’s felons, usually it’s people who have experience specifically with this,” Pulley said.
With holiday grinches out in full force, Draper Police is stepping up patrols.
“It is significant enough that, that is our number one priority right now to curb this,” said Sgt. Chad Carpenter with Draper Police. “It’s not tied to one specific area. We are seeing it happen all over Draper.”
Police are looking at surveillance video from one of the neighborhoods where a theft occurred. It shows a red or maroon passenger car. So far, they don’t have a description of the suspect.
Police are also investigating a vehicle burglary that occurred in a Draper neighborhood early Tuesday around 4 a.m. Surveillance video shows three men in a car. Two of the men get out of the vehicle and then try to break into cars parked in driveways.
“We don’t know if the two are tied together or not,” Carpenter said.
In the meantime, police are urging neighbors to be on the lookout. Pick up your mail every day as soon as you can. And if you’re expecting a package, but won’t be at home, make arrangements.
“If you’re not going to be home on that delivery date, if your work allows it, have it delivered to your work, to a family member or a friend that stays home during the day,” Carpenter said.
Pulley is waiting for thieves to get caught any day now.
“You’re stupid to keep going through the same neighborhoods, not that people aren’t aware, we know and we’re eventually going to figure it out,” Pulley said.
Draper Police is following up on several leads. If you have any information that can help them make an arrest, call 801-840-4000.
