Three people have been charged with felony crimes after swiping mail from small town post offices in Brazoria County, and the county's top prosecutor is among the victims, Local 2 Investigates reported Friday.

"I think it's a really good experience.  I think it's one that every prosecutor, everybody in the justice system, should have," Brazoria County District Attorney Jeri Yenni said.

Lake Jackson police called her this week, but she quickly realized it was no routine phone call.

Yenni said the officer told her, "'I'm staring at your checks, from a hotel, that I pulled out of the trash, basically.' I said, 'What?'"

Police in Palacios in Matagorda County found stacks of stolen mail in a routine traffic stop on Dec. 9, according to court records. Two people were arrested and a third ran away, but police then searched a motel room where the trio had been staying on Highway 332 East in Lake Jackson.

Officers write in their arrest warrant paperwork that they found more stolen mail stuffed into the trash can, including two checks that Yenni had mailed to pay some household bills.

Police also found a sticky roll of fly paper that had been tied to shoestrings, which was used to dip down into blue Post Office collection boxes in Lake Jackson and the nearby town of Clute.

Brianne Bradley, a post office customer in Lake Jackson reacted, "I would definitely not put it in the mailbox anymore. That's ridiculous. That's crazy."

Facing felony charges in Brazoria County are 21-year-old Eric Lee Licerio and 28-year-old Natosha Rene Clanton, both of Victoria.

In court papers, police said both admitted to "fishing" for mail in post office collection boxes in Clute and Lake Jackson.

The suspected ringleader who ran from police, 35-year-old Robert Joseph Thompson, is also charged with the same felony count of fraudulent possession of identifying information.  He remains at large.

Yenni said the checks that were found in their motel trash can showed signs that someone had tried to erase the "payee" line where she had filled out business names for her bills.

She was forced to quickly close her bank account and she said she's been unable to write checks since the discovery. Not only is she waiting on new checks to arrive for her newly opened bank accounts, but she said she's had to call businesses to make sure they've actually received checks that were mailed in the past.

"That was a good experience for me," she said, now seeing what crime victims have to endure.

She urged people to carry their mail inside the post office to drop it off, based on her newly learned lesson. 

"They need to take some extra caution," she said.

Lake Jackson police did not return calls for information.  US Postal Inspectors in Houston also did not return calls.

Yenni said she will request that a special prosecutor be appointed to handle the felony cases of all three mail theft suspects.

Some of the victims were elderly and from out of town, according to court records.  In all, police wrote that they found stolen mail and bank account information for five separate people.

Yenni said that she, like many others, does not like the idea of paying bills online because of security risks.  She said she has always favored writing checks and sending them by mail to avoid online dangers, but now this has rattled her sense of security about post office collection boxes.

In an unrelated case, two Houston men were recently sentenced to federal prison for stealing mail outside 10 different post offices on Houston's west and northwest sides. Federal agents said those men would typically lift mail out of boxes on Sunday nights, when the blue collection boxes were full from weekend errand-runners.