The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office is still looking for leads after multiple stacks of mail — some opened — were found in a Greenwood neighborhood last week.
Thieves targeted about 50 mailboxes in neighborhoods surrounding Fairview and Peterman roads, where at least two separate stacks of mail were found — one in a neighborhood street and another on the side of Fairview Road a couple blocks east of where the first stack was found.
So far, the sheriff’s office doesn’t have any suspects, said Jason Wools, a detective working the case.
Several residents woke up last weekend to find incoming mail ripped opened, outgoing mail missing and notes from sheriff’s deputies notifying them that their mail, some of which had been found and returned to them, had been gone through, original reports from the sheriff’s office said.
Initially, on Dec. 21, deputies thought about 20 mailboxes were rummaged through, but a second stack of discarded mail was spotted on Wednesday, said Wools, who returned mail to nearly 50 homes in the area. He asked residents with cameras to provide him with video footage from last weekend, he said.
Looking at tracking information from both stacks of discarded mail, it appears all of the letters and packages were delivered around the same time, which indicates that the same person or group of people are responsible for all of the thefts, Wools said.
“It’s consistent with what we found the second time. It appears as if they only opened and maybe only took — they’re singling out — items that looked like Christmas cards and packages. When they do take other envelopes, they typically aren’t opening those,” Wools said.
“We have no reason to believe at this point that these folks are going up on porches. I think they’re just hitting the mailboxes.”
So far, the biggest ticket items reported stolen in the string of thefts are two holiday cards containing $100 each, and outgoing checks totaling more than $700. As of Friday afternoon, the checks were canceled and no one had tried to cash them, Wools said.
Several residents said they saw two men sitting in a grey Dodge Charger outside their homes around the time the thefts would have occurred, according to the initial reports from last weekend.
But nobody during the second round of mail returns reported any unusual activity, he said.
“In very few cases were they even aware their mailboxes were gone through,” Wools said.
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The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office is asking that anyone who may have information about these mailbox thefts call the agency’s tip line at 317-346-4654.
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