Porch pirates targeting, stealing entire mailboxes in Pflugerville

U.S. Postal Inspectors told FOX 7 Austin they are working with local law enforcement to identify and apprehend those responsible for this activity.

PFLUGERVILLE, Texas - As we get closer to the holidays, we all need to be aware of porch pirates. Thieves stealing packages from your front door. But, for one neighborhood in Pflugerville, it's not just missing mail and packages these thieves are taking.

Thieves are now stealing full mailboxes out of the ground.

Two full-sized mailboxes were stolen out of one neighborhood in Pflugerville. "And I was like you've got to be kidding me, who does this?" said Candice Anderson.

Anderson is one of eight residents, whose mail was in the box when it was stolen. She said a neighbor told her about it and at first, she just thought it was the mail, not the whole unit.

She said it has been a complete inconvenience. "We're having to go to the post office, every day to collect our mail," said Anderson. "It's comical, but it's not."

Just a few streets over in the same neighborhood, another mailbox was stolen; completely ripped from the ground. Anderson said as the holidays are approaching, these thieves are turning to more and more outrageous measures.

"It's disappointing and I hope we can get this solved pretty quickly," she said

U.S. Postal Inspectors told FOX 7 Austin they are working with local law enforcement to identify and apprehend those responsible for this activity.

U.S. Postal Inspectors told FOX 7 Austin they are working with local law enforcement to identify and apprehend those responsible for this activity. They added, "the protection of the mail is one of the primary focuses of the USPIS and we take every allegation of mail theft seriously."

In a statement, they wrote there are measures residents can take to help secure their mail including:

"The primary preventive step customers can take is to not allow their mail to remain in the mailbox for extended periods of time. Postal Inspectors recommend checking your mailbox every day and removing mail as promptly as possible. The longer your mail sits in your mailbox, the more susceptible it is to theft."

In the meantime, Anderson said the post office has told her they have a replacement mailbox,, but haven't given any timeline on when she may see it.

"At this moment it's just a waiting game," she said. "We don't know when they're going to be installed and we don't know if we're first in line to get the mailbox mounted."