MIAMI – Police are searching for two crooks who broke into community mailboxes in Miami’s Coconut Grove neighborhood; surveillance video captured the criminals in action.
It happened around noon on Wednesday at the Villagio in the Grove condominium building, at 2740 SW 28th Terrace.
One of the suspects is seen in the video using a screwdriver to force open mailbox after mailbox and filling up his backpack with people’s mail.
He is then seen taking a package before leaving the same way he came in. The lunch-hour heist was done in less than four minutes.
Residents at the Villagio said they are upset, shaken and frustrated.
“It’s a high-end neighborhood; we don’t pay cheap rent,” one resident, who asked not to be identified, told Local 10 News.
They say this isn’t the first time that residents have had security issues.
“We already got homeless (people) inside of the garage once,” the resident said. “Honestly, I believe the management company that deals with this building doesn’t take care of us.”
For months, Local 10 News has been following the growing crime trend of mail theft across South Florida.
In many cases, thieves have been recorded using master keys stolen from U.S. Post Office staff to ransack entire communities off their mail.
That was not the case on Wednesday in the Grove.
Miami police responded as neighbors are saying they’re worried of could happen next.
“If they did that like at the daylight with a glass window and nobody doing anything, so they can start opening our apartments,” said the resident. “We don’t feel safe in there.”