Federal Post Office Inspectors are investigating a rash of burglaries at the Gilroy Post Office as well as other South County and San Benito County locations.Â
“We’ve experienced break-ins at the Gilroy, Hollister, San Juan Bautista and Morgan Hill Post Offices,” said Jeff Fitch, information officer for the U.S. Postal Service Inspector’s Office.Â
Few details of the thefts were available Tuesday afternoon. Fitch said the Post Office is offering a $10,000 reward for anyone with information leading to the suspect’s arrest.Â
“We would love for more claims to come in,” Fitch said. “We want to get the word out.”
Post Offices Inspectors are the law enforcement arm for the U.S. Postal Service. Burglary of a Post Office and stealing mail are crimes punishable by five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.Â
A Gilroy woman contacted this newspaper Monday morning claiming that her mail has repeatedly been stolen from the Gilroy Post Office for the past month.Â
On July 22, Valerie Hall went to pick up a package of six gold rings she had been expecting, valued at $6,000. Her tracking number indicated that the package had arrived at the Gilroy office, but it was nowhere to be found.Â
The Post Office clerk told Hall she had personally seen the missing package earlier and that the Gilroy and Morgan Hill Post Offices have “had a lot of problems with theft lately,” Hall said.Â
So Hall filed a theft claim with the US Postal Service.Â
The rings were family heirlooms that Hall had sent to a company to be plated. Hall has also reported several parcels related to her business, VKR Pets, to be missing.Â
“I’ve had three complaints of people who returned items to me in the past month and I never received them,” Hall said.Â
Hall believes she’s not the only victim of mail theft.Â
Fitch said he would have more details on the investigation later this week. Until then, he encouraged anyone who thinks their mail has been stolen to call the Post Office Inspector at (877) 876-2455.Â
