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Bold Thieves Stealing Mailboxes In Inland Empire Community

EASTVALE (CBSLA.com) — Bold thieves have been stealing mailboxes in the community of Eastvale and officials say the victims of the crime might end up paying for it.

KCAL9's Crystal Cruz reports that residents who live in newer developments are the biggest targets.

Specifically, the thieves have been making off with entire group mailboxes.

"It's not one of those things you realize, it's something you kind of take for granted. It's just a mailbox. But when you don't have it you realize just how much you need it," said one resident.

"This is a nice safe area. Who would have thought?," said Dennis Kierulff, an Eastvale resident.

Kierulff and his neighbor noticed their group mailbox was missing Tuesday morning, 12 boxes all together.

"It actually looks totally clean so obviously [it was] someone knew what they were doing," said Kierulff.

The inconvenience is bad enough. The timing is worse.

"Not only is it holiday time it's towards the end of the year which means you know tax things for the year and with no mail box or address you're going to have to worry about getting a P.O, box made or have mail forwarded. It's totally inconvenient," said Kierulff.

The Postal Service told Cruz that if a mailbox is stolen it's up to the homeowners to replace it -- it's considered personal property.

That news hit homeowners hard.

"It was not cheap. I think my neighbor was checking into it and it was about $1,500 bucks," said Kierulff.

A spokesperson from the Postal Service and the Sheriff's Department both told Cruz the mailbox thefts don't yet appear to be a widespread problem.

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