Is mail theft on the rise?

A pile of stolen mail recovered Sunday on a lawn in Coeur d’Alene was the second batch of pilfered mail recovered in Kootenai County in less than a week.

The property owner south of Kathleen Avenue near The Fedora reported finding the mail Sunday morning.

Most of the mail found spilled in the lawn on the 2100 block of East Canyon Drive had been opened and its contents removed, police said.

“The mail was opened and items of value were taken, including gift cards and cash,” Coeur d’Alene Police Detective Jared Reneau said.

The mail was filched from dozens of people in Coeur d’alene, police said.

“We identified 30 victims,” Reneau said.

The theft was the second large cache of purloined packages and correspondence police hit on in the past several days.

Kootenai County deputies arrested a 38-year-old Rathdrum woman south of Post Falls last week who allegedly had a stockpile of stolen mail. Kristina M. Geyer was charged Friday with four counts of grand theft and is in the Kootenai County jail on a $17,000 bond.

City police don’t think the cases are interconnected, and although mail thefts are often more frequent around the holidays, Reneau said reports of mail mugging are relatively uncommon the rest of the year.

“We see it every now and again,” he said.

The latest spate could be an anomaly — or forecast an uptick.

Police urge residents to report suspicious activity around mailboxes such as unmarked vehicles driving to multiple mailboxes. Police say checking and emptying mailboxes as soon as mail is delivered can prevent theft, and anyone planning to be on vacation should ask the post office to hold their mail. Checking credit history regularly and using a fraud alert service is a good idea. And anyone mailing cash, checks, or items of value should send them from the post office.