Mail thief hits shared Travis Heights mailbox twice in one month

AUSTIN, Texas - For the past five years, Nancy Davidson has been living in Travis Heights with her husband. Like many in her neighborhood, checking the mail at this shared community mailbox is an everyday routine.

"It's the first time this has happened and I really didn't know what to do. I called 311. And reported it to APD,” she says. But three weeks ago, a normal routine turned into a mystery - neighbors are begging cops to solve.

''I don't know what they used a crowbar to pry it open. Then they're able to unlock it,” she adds.

On March 26, someone broke into the boxes, taking everything in sight. "I was walking my dog and we passed this and noticed one of the mailboxes was completely open and all the mail was gone and it looked like it had been pried open."

At the time, an officer with the Austin Police Department told Davidson over the phone, there has been a rise in identity theft and several mailboxes in the Travis Heights area were hit in the past few months.

"It's not just an invasion in our privacy but now it's kind of a pain because we have to call the post office and let them know it's been broken into. Until it gets repaired they're not going to be able to deliver our mail." That uneasy feeling Davidson describes was reignited Thursday morning.

Davidson noticed the mailboxes were hit again. “We try to be as adamant and vigilant as we can but it would be helpful to know more of what's going on and ways to prevent it." She says the residents have to pay for the mailbox to get repaired, get new keys and the post office has to get new keys as well. 

A process she says is troublesome and makes many feel uneasy especially since the person responsible hasn't been caught. "Now they have access to your personal information so what we're trying to do now is contact the people we do business with to make sure they don't send us any mail for now maybe do e-statements."

Davidson says she says she had no idea all these crimes were on the rise until it happened in her neighborhood and APD informed her about the rise in identity thefts.

FOX 7 Austin contacted Austin police Thursday and weren’t able to get this confirmed.

We do however have the report file numbers.