Community Police & Fire

Police arrest suspect in wave of mail thefts, find mailbox ‘master key’

Gig Harbor police officers arrested a suspect associated with a series of recent mail thefts in the area.

Officers also recovered what the department called “an official (U.S. Postal Service) master key” used by mail carriers to access community mailbox banks.

The 31-year-old suspect is in the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of multiple charges, both locally and around the region.

Gig Harbor Police posted this photo of a postal service master key recovered along with pounds of stolen mail.

According to the Gig Harbor Police Department on social media, officers received “numerous reports” of stolen mail over the past few weeks. Many came from what the Postal Service calls cluster box units, or CBUs, that serve places like condos or apartments.

Gig Harbor police worked with federal postal inspectors on the case.

Detectives served a search warrant on a vehicle linked to this and other cases on Sept. 9. They found the master key, “a large quantity of stolen mail” from Gig Harbor, drugs and a firearm.

The U.S. Postal Service Inspection Service will audit the found mail and notify owners.