STUDIO CITY— The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is offering a $50,000 reward for information that will lead to the arrest of three suspects responsible for robbing a mail carrier at gunpoint, which occurred on Tuesday, July 11. Suspects were later caught on surveillance footage entering into a Studio City apartment complex with a key and ransacking tenants’ mailboxes.
At around 10:20 a.m. on Tuesday, near 5522 Vineland Avenue, one suspect – described as a Black male, approximately five foot, eleven inches to six feet tall, 25 to 35-years-old, wearing all black clothing and black sneakers and armed with a black semi-automatic handgun – followed a USPS mail carrier into a business, brandished his gun and stole the carrier’s master keys, Officer Madison told Canyon News.
The suspect then fled the scene with two other suspects – one described wearing a white face mask, grey hooded sweatshirt, dark jeans and white sneakers and the second was the driver of the vehicle who’s description is unknown at this time – in a black BMW SUV heading northbound on Vineland Avenue.
Later on that day, a Studio City apartment complex at 12946 Valleyheart Drive was broken into twice and robbed of its mail. Surveillance footage shows a suspect – wearing a black hoodie and white sneakers – entering the apartment complex with a key around 10 p.m, and robbing mail from tenants boxes. Several hours later, at around 3 a.m., the man can be seen returning with a second suspect to steal more mail.
The U.S. Postal Service will be replacing the locks on the community’s mailboxes and until then residents will be inconvenienced to pick up their mail directly from local post offices, ABC 7 reported.
It has not been confirmed if the two incidents, the robbery and the apartment burglarizing, are connected.
If you have any information about this incident, please contact the: U.S. Postal Inspection Service at 1-877-876-2455 (say “Law Enforcement”), reference Case No. 4074202. All information will be kept strictly confidential.
By Lacy