HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – No one has a good feeling after a string of mail thefts in the northwest Harris County neighborhoods of Canyon Lakes at Stonegate, Towne Lake, and Stone Gate near Cypress. Someone has been using a device and breaking into the neighborhoods' mailboxes for the past several weeks.
Murtaza Surtarwala snapped a picture a couple of weeks ago driving his son to school.
“As soon as I saw that I had a feeling that somebody maybe had stolen something from the mailbox,” said Surtarwala. “So I called the postal service.”
Neighbors tell KPRC 2 that most of the mailboxes have been broken into at some point in the past few weeks. It’s never a good time to have a thief running around but a lot of people are on edge during a tough time, they say.
“Whether it be the election or whether it be COVID related bills that are coming through, having any of that kind of stuff get delayed,” said Nick Blumer. “Money is tight for everybody right now. If anybody’s taking any level of that away, that is an absolute concern.”
KPRC 2 reached out to the U.S. postal inspector in Houston Sylvia Torres.
In a statement, Torres said, in part: “Inspectors are looking into reports of theft in the northwest Harris County neighborhoods including Canyon Lakes at Stonegate, Towne Lake, and Stone Gate and will actively work with local law enforcement and the community to identify those responsible for mail theft.”
In the meantime, neighbors say they will be taking precautions until the thieves are caught.
“We try to go out of our way to make sure that we send tracking numbers,” said Sutarwala. “And just trying to make online payments as much as we can.”
The inspector says it is unknown what tools the suspect(s) used to gain access to the mail, however, they are looking into all possibilities.