Mail Theft Suspect Posing As Postal Worker In Sacramento Neighborhood

SACRAMENTO COUNTY (CBS13) — A phony postal worker is accused of stealing mail in a Sacramento neighborhood.

Federal investigators say they're looking for a suspect wearing a fake mail carrier uniform that's targeting unsuspecting residents in Del Paso Heights.

Michael Mohr says he was at a restaurant with his daughters when he got a message on his cellphone that someone was at his front door. As we watched his mail being taken, there was nothing he could do but helplessly watch.

"I saw this on my cellphone live as it was happening," he said.

The home security video is very telling. From a distance, it looks like a typical mail carrier walking down the street. As he gets closer to the home, what resembles a U.S. Postal Service patch is on his left shoulder and he's even carrying a bag like a postal worker.

But when he steps onto the porch, he drops some letters in, but takes a handful out, then casually walks away. He appears to repeat the tactic at a neighbor's house. This all happens in broad daylight as cars pass by.

"He's definitely impersonating a postal employee," Mohr said.

U.S. Postal Inspector Jeff Fitch agrees.

"This is somebody taking advantage of the postal uniform so they can operate in the daylight," he said.

After postal investigators saw the video, they confirmed the man isn't a postal employee, but an alleged thief they want off the streets.

"We actually have people out working on this, on the streets as we speak," he said.

Mohr says for years his neighbors couldn't figure out why they were always getting each other's mail, but the surveillance video could provide some answers.

"I think that this guy has been out here for at least three years maybe longer or may be the entire time I've been out here and because of his tactics I think that he very well could have been," he said.