Police looking for mailbox vandals

Some Foothills residents received a shock when they went to pick up their mail.

Between the evening of Jan. 28 and the morning of Jan. 29, the locks were cut from 10 mailboxes at Dunbow Road and 44 Street.

“I picked up my mail on Thursday and everything was normal, and then on Friday I went and most of the locks were lying on the ground and the boxes were empty,” said DeWinton resident Jake Bueckert. “There were fliers and other mail scattered all around.”

The locks looked as though they had been removed with bolt cutters, he said.

He said the mailbox is one of the green boxes often found in rural areas, and residents are expected to provide their own locks.

Bueckert has since replaced his with a thicker lock he hopes will protect his mailbox from being accessed in the future.

“My biggest concern is that private information gets out and the possibility of identity theft,” he said. “There could be cheques in the mail that could be lost, and with tax season starting there’s lots of private information coming from Revenue Canada and employers.

“That’s a scary thing, to think of someone being able to access all that information.”

Bueckert reported the incident to the Okotoks RCMP and also requested more secure mailboxes from Canada Post.

“Canada Post said they’d pass it along to the proper department so we’ll see what happens, if anything happens,” he said. “That’s about the best solution I can think of.”

Okotoks RCMP have also appealed to Canada Post to provide better locks for their mailboxes, said Sgt. Sukh Randhawa.

One of the mailboxes broken into belonged to MD of Foothills Mayor Larry Spilak.

He said it appeared as though the only locks cut were lower-quality, cheaper ones. Spilak and many of his neighbours have since put higher-quality locks on their mailboxes to prevent future incident.

“There is a rash of identity theft happening all over Canada, so we have to protect ourselves however we can,” said Spilak. “First and foremost, get a good lock on your mailbox.

“Don’t buy the $5 lock, buy the $15 one. You’ll be safe moving forward.”

RCMP said the investigation is ongoing.

Anyone with information about the mailbox break-ins is asked to call the Okotoks RCMP at 403-938-6400. Anonymous tips can be made with Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS(8477).