By PETER DAY
Senior Reporter
LUCERNE VALLEY • New credit cards and other items were recently stolen from a local rural mailbox, according to a resident.
Stacy Dhingra, a 5-year resident of Lucerne Valley, said she realized items were missing from her mailbox after she failed to receive merchandise that she ordered on eBay and Amazon.com. The purchased items, which were listed as delivered by the online stores, apparently were picked up by a mail thief who had taken her delivery notices to the Lucerne Valley Post Office and received the items, she said.
In addition, the thief took new credit cards sent to the mailbox and purchased more than $800 in merchandise from Walmart stores in Hesperia and Victorville. The thief also used her card to pump gas at a local gas station. Several Netflix DVDs also were missing, she said.
Dhingra's mailbox was located in a tract in the eastern part of Lucerne Valley.
After the theft, Dhingra took down her mailbox, wrote a warning sign to other residents whose mailboxes could be at risk, and paid for a postal box at the post office.
"I'm sure this is going on all over the place," Dhingra said. "They're not just picking on me."
Others with rural mailboxes should keep aware and watch your banking statements.
"And check your credit card statements," she said.