Police: Mail thieves arrested after stumbling into officer training exercise | Crime

A couple of mail thieves – who were making off with gift cards, Netflix movies, checks, credit cards, Christmas cards, bills and mail from the IRS – got themselves arrested when they stumbled into the middle of an officer training exercise early this morning in Olympic Hills, according to the Seattle Police Department.

Shortly after midnight Dec. 28, a K-9 officer was setting up a “training track” for another K-9 officer. While the officer was waiting in the 13300 block of 20th Avenue Northeast for the other K-9 unit to find him, he saw a car moving between mail boxes on either side of the street, stealing mail, according to police.

The officer called it in, and police stopped the car in the 14300 block of 22nd Avenue Northeast. Responding officers saw a large bag of mail on the floor of the car and a number of credit cards on the floor and dashboard, according to police.

When officers asked about the mail, the 21-year-old driver admitted he stole it, and he and a 19-year-old female passenger were arrested, according to police.

The pair were booked into King County Jail for nine counts of investigation of mail theft and five counts of possession of stolen property.

In all, they had approximately 115 pieces of mail from 28 different victims, according to police.