Reports of stolen checks were greatly exaggerated

Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2005 | 7:48 a.m.

Local television newscasts' reports about state rebate checks being stolen from mailboxes in Sun City Anthem were wrong, the U.S. Postal Service said Tuesday.

The checks were taken -- but by the neighborhood's postal carrier, who took them to the post office for safekeeping.

The mail carrier for the 2200 block of Diamondville Street and surrounding area could not get the lock on the "gang box," the street's cluster of mailboxes, to work properly Saturday, so she took all of those customers' mail back to the post office, Postal Service spokesman Roger Wagner said.

The carrier filled out a repair order for the community mail box at the end of her shift on Saturday and it has been repaired, he said.

So people who use those mailboxes "should have their checks today," Wagner said.

The Postal Service received four calls from valley residents about possible mail thefts on Saturday, Wagner said. Most were from Sun City Anthem residents who discovered their community box empty.

That's low for a weekend, Wagner said. The average number of complaints during a weekend is 10, he said.

However, one postal customer who did not live in the southeast valley said his mailbox had been broken into and he had the videotape to prove it.

A postal supervisor went to the man's mailbox, found the lock intact and the box full of mail, Wagner said.

"So he knocked on the door of the man's home," Wagner said. The customer insisted the postal official watch the videotape because there was a "suspicious character" on it.

The "shady" character turned out to be a meter reader for Southwest Gas Co.

Mary Manning can be reached at 259-4065 or at manning@ lasvegassun.com.