Mailbox Break-ins Have Tracy Residents Demanding Change

TRACY (CBS13) — People living in a Tracy community are joining forces to change the way they receive their mail.

The neighborhood is asking the U.S. Post Office to get rid of their community mailboxes and let them go back to home delivery.

Cynthia Camacho Aqino and her neighbors were floored when they were contacted by police over a mailbox issue.

"We wouldn't have even known that this was happening because there was no sign," she said.

A bag of stolen mail was found, but there was no sign the mailbox and others in the neighborhood and had been broken into.

Home security cameras showed a vehicle driving up to the boxes and a passenger getting out, opening up a group box with a key and then scoops out the mail.

The blocks of mailboxes grouped together are a popular target for thieves who can hit 16 to 20 boxes by opening one group box.

The Elissagaray residents are now putting together a petition asking to have their mail delivered to their homes instead, mitigating the risk.

A postal service representative tells CBS13 it's very unlikely it will revert to something that will cost more time and money. Only carriers have the key to community boxes, and the theft is under investigation.