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Post Office drop
boxes hit again
By Barbara Gartman
Monitor Staff Writer
KEMP–Once again, a thief or thieves have snipped the back latch of the blue mail drop
box just outside the Kemp Post Office.
They took the inside bucket and made off with an undetermined amount of mail.
And once again, there’s a sign on the box, telling customers to bring their mail
inside the post office.
The theft occurred sometime after dark Friday night, or early Saturday, May 1, Kemp Post
Office superintendent Nate Witcher said.
“Our clerk who arrives first in the mornings, Patricia Fore, called Kemp
Police,” he said.
“Then I got here at 6 a.m., put the sign on the box and called the postal
inspector,” Witchter added.
“Anyone who deposited mail in the box after 5:30 p.m. Friday until 2:30 a.m. Saturday
should check their financial statements, creditors and bill collectors,” Witcher
said.
Due to rain overnight Friday, it will be difficult to capture a clean set of fingerprints
from the lock portion of the box, but there may be prints on other parts of the mail box.
“We have recovered the (inside) bucket and a piece of mail,” Kemp Police Chief
Richard Clemmo said.
“I have contacted the Postal Inspector and am waiting on a response,” he added.
The Postal Inspector will either send the evidence to FBI laboratories or instruct Kemp
police to send it to a local lab, he said.
Witcher said that over the same weekend, thieves also broke into the mail box outside the
Trinidad Post Office.
“The thieves go through the mail hunting for items such as cash, credit cards and
money orders,” he explained.
Information on a money order can be washed off with a chemical and new information filled
in, allowing a criminal to cash it with few problems, he said.
The Monitor reported on the same type of theft in December, 2009.
At that time, the thieves allegedly hit boxes in Kemp, Mabank and Malakoff.
The act is a federal offense with penalties “up to five years per piece of
mail,” upon conviction, according to postal inspector Sam Gonzales.
Purse-snatcher’s description
given
Monitor Staff Reports
GUN BARREL CITY–Police released a description of the April 30 would-be purse snatcher
from the Walmart parking lot Thursday.
Gun Barrel City investigating officer Jesse Ison described the perpetrator as a white
male, weighing about 220 pounds and 5-10 in height. He has brown hair, cut very short, and
he was wearing a blue Texas Ranger shirt and blue jeans. His estimated age is late 20s to
early 30s.
A white female with dark blond hair and wearing a white shirt reportedly was driving the
getaway vehicle–a dark-colored Ford F-150 four-door pickup.
The attempted purse snatching left a woman with a broken foot, bruising and road rash. The
attempt occurred around 4:55 p.m., Ison said.
The woman had just exited her car and was instructing her two daughters, ages 6 and 7, to
remain close to her when the man attacked her and tried to take her purse.
The woman believes another elderly woman was the attacker's initial target.
Anyone with information as to the identity and whereabouts of these two suspects are asked
to call Gun Barrel City Police Department at (903) 887-7151. Press 1 to speak to a person
about your knowledge of the suspects.
Beading a gift for Mother’s
Day
Monitor Photo/Pearl Cantrell
 Marsha Cyzmer and daughter
Nicole from Simply Beadiful in Gun Barrel City help a troop of Girl Scouts from Tool
Elementary prepare a special necklace for Mother’s Day gifts April 30. |