THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 14, 1994 TAG: 9412140448
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHURCH'S ISLAND LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
Like most folks living along rural routes, Jaqueline Collier had put a letter in her mailbox in the evening and pulled up its metal flag to alert the next day's postal carrier.
Apparently the flag also alerted the female driver of a light-colored, midsize car, who pulled up to the roadside mailbox about 1:20 a.m. Tuesday and then sped off.
Collier had gotten up to let her cat in the house and saw the car stop and then drive off. When she opened the mailbox, it was empty and the flag had been pushed down.
One of the Collier's neighbors in Church's Island also was a victim of mail theft Tuesday. A carrier payment in their newspaper tube had been stolen as well.
``We felt violated, really,'' said Collier's husband, Leslie. ``We were just completely dumbfounded because no one messes with the U.S. mail unless it's Jesse James or the Sundance Kid.''
Such thefts are rare around here.
``I've been doing this 15 years, and this is my first,'' said Sgt. Graham Keaton, the deputy investigating the crimes for the Currituck County Sheriff's Department.
Keaton warned people on rural routes to put out their mail in the morning whenever possible.
``If the lady had not gotten up to take her cat in, we probably would have never known about this,'' he said. Most would assume the postal carrier had picked up the parcels when they noticed the flag down, he added.
Postal workers normally see an increase in rural mail pickups during the holiday season.
The postmaster at the U.S. Post Office in Coinjock, which services Church's Island, said the agency's privacy policy prevented her from commenting on the recent thefts.
She referred questions to the U.S. Postal Inspections Service in Raleigh. An inspector did not immediately return a telephone call Tuesday. by CNB