A Chicago man is facing more than a dozen felony charges after he was arrested Monday for the second time in two weeks for burglaries and mail theft, according to the United States Postal Inspection Service.
Gustavo Belleza, 36, was first arrested Nov. 7 after Chicago police and postal inspection officials accused him of more than 15 burglaries and mail thefts in Lincoln Park over the last month, according to police.
Law enforcement officials said they discovered him breaking into mailboxes, and upon his arrest, found he was in possession of fake identifications and real ones not belonging to him, along with stolen mail and about 65 bank cards with victims’ names.
He was arrested again Monday for possessing two more stolen identifications, 10 more bank cards not belonging to him and several burglary tools, according to police.
Since May, postal inspectors have made 109 arrests for robberies and 530 arrests for mail theft as part of an enforcement surge across the U.S., including in Chicago, according to the United States Postal inspection Service.
The measures were part of Project Safe Delivery — implemented by the postal service last May as an effort to reduce postal crimes and protect its employees — which entailed installing more blue collection boxes, replacing old locks and increasing the reward for information leading to arrests, among other things, according to the agency.
The U.S. Postal Service recommends people take in their mail as soon as it’s delivered and drop off their mail at blue collection boxes or hand it directly to mail carriers as ways to prevent theft and fraud.
“If you attack postal employees, steal the mail, or commit other postal crimes, Postal Inspectors will bring you to justice,” said Chief Postal Inspector Gary Barksdale in a statement. “We ask that the public assist us with our mission.”
