Tuesday, January 3, 2012

While one family was reporting a burglary in the 8700 block of East Brookhollow, they remembered seeing two women snooping around mailboxes around 11:30 a.m. on Monday.

"Like somebody breaking into your house. You feel violated," said Dean Coughenour.

In the past three weeks, Coughenour has fallen victim to mail theft. He had checks for the holidays and gifts from his family taken from his mailbox.

"A lot of the things that I have had come up missing can be replaced or they won't be able to cash the checks, but still it's a big inconvenience," said Coughenour.

Police said there is a risk for identity theft for people with unsecured mailboxes.

"It's a real danger. Identity theft is something that everyone needs to be very vigilant about," said Lt. Doug Nolte, Wichita Police.

An observant neighbor reported a burglary on Monday and his wife remembered seeing something suspicious earlier in the day.

"The neighbor was walking around the side of the house and that's when one yelled to the other. Probably said, 'Hey, there is either no mail today,' or 'The neighbor's coming, so let's go,'" said Jeff Herlocker.

Since the post office did not deliver mail on Monday, the women left with nothing, but victims like Coughenour felt it was not right.

"People who don't have in these economic times are sometimes taking from people who do and we're no better off than anybody else. We're all feeling the pain of the economy," said Coughenour.

Police are looking for two women in their early 20's, who drove away in a white, mid 90's Ford Taurus or a car similar to that model. One woman had dark brown hair in a bun and the other had blonde hair.