Granada Hills Residents Catch Alleged Mail Thief On Surveillance Video

GRANADA HILLS (CBSLA.com)   —  Residents in Granada Hills say they have recently endured a rash of mail thefts.

They also told KCAL9's Jeff Nguyen that they aren't getting much help from authorities.

The residents also believe they have caught the alleged thief -- on surveillance tape.

"Not only did I have a crime perpetrated against me, but it's almost like rubbing salt on the wound," said Dr. Aviva Ebner.

Dr. Ebner is referring to what happened early Wednesday outside her Granada Hills home.

An SUV or van is seen driving across the screen -- and seconds later, a man walks towards the mailbox.

A few hours later – she goes outside to walk the dog and notices something strange.

"I was really surprised to see my mailbox open," Ebner said, "I didn't remember leaving it open. And then when I looked down our street, I noticed every mailbox on our side of the street was open. I looked inside and it was empty."

She had filled the mailbox with a stack of outgoing mail – including bill payments – the night before.

"Probably three, four times a day I go online and I check my online account, and I'm looking for checks, you know, I want to see what checks may go through and what checks may show up," said Mark Ebner, Aviva's husband.

The Ebners reached out to the LAPD but police told them what they told Nguyen – the post office is in charge of investigating mail theft.

They tried to report this incident to the post office through its website customer service representative on the phone.

"And she really didn't have any information for me as to what will happen from that point forward," said Dr. Ebner.

This isn't the first incident like this on this block.

Just a few weeks earlier, a UPS package was stolen from the front porch right across the street.