Hundreds of pieces of stolen mail, 14 packages found in the backseat of a car
WHITE COUNTY, Ga. - Authorities recovered hundreds of pieces of stolen mail and packages from the backseat of a car in Helen, Georgia.
Kristopher Beasley was arrested and is now behind bars at the White County jail.
The Lumpkin County Sheriff's Office said it all started on Sunday when they received calls from community members about a man in a car acting suspiciously around mailboxes. That man was later identified as Beasley.
According to Lt. Alan Roach with the sheriff's office, an off-duty officer spotted the car and was able to get more information.
That information was put in a database where other agencies could see.
Later that day, Helen police were able to arrest him after seeing Beasley hanging around some mailboxes in their area.
He ran away from the police and was initially arrested on drug charges.
Lt. Roach said Helen police officers then spotted bags of stolen mail in the backseat of Beasley's car.
"When they went to do an inventory of the vehicle, they found the mail. Think of a large brown paper grocery sack. 12 of those packed full of mail. Along with about 14 packages," Roach said.
Sign up for FOX 5 email alerts
The mail belonged to people in Lumpkin, Union, Hall, White and Habersham counties.
"Out of all the mail and packages, there were about 160 addresses in Lumpkin County that we were able to recover mail for," Roach said.
The mail belonging to people in the other counties were turned over to authorities in those counties.
Beasley is now facing charges for drugs, felony theft, and identity theft fraud.
Lt. Roach said this is a conclusion they don't often see. While mail theft is common, catching the criminals in the act or afterward isn't always easy.
"It's not something that we commonly catch people doing," Roach said.
He credits observant community members and officers for being able to arrest the suspect.
"The thing that we had going for us on this occasion was that we had observant citizens in our community. We also had an observant off duty officer," Roach said.
Download the FOX 5 Atlanta app for breaking news and weather alerts.