Police investigating postal break-in

Friday, May 18, 2007

Federal postal inspectors were at the Greencastle post office Friday morning to investigate the apparent theft of money from a stamp vending machine located in the post office lobby.

Greencastle Post Master Jeff Adams explained that the lobby is accessible to the public 24 hours a day, which allows people to access their post office boxes, mail a letter or purchase stamps from an automated machine after hours.

Someone took advantage of this access when, investigator say, they entered the lobby at around 3:30 a.m. Friday and used a crow bar to pry open the stamp machine.

The suspects took the money from the machine but left the stamps and more importantly, fingerprints that Greencastle Police Det. Randy Seipel is hoping will help him identify the thieves. He was at the post office Friday morning to take pictures and process the scene. Other than fingerprints, he said there was no other evidence left at the scene.

Adams explained that the machine has a built-in alarm which sounded and probably caused the suspects to flee. A postal customers, who entered the lobby at around 5 a.m., noticed the damaged machine and then contacted police.

Adams has worked at the post office for six years and said he is not aware of anything like this happening before. However, postal officials say it did happen in Hendricks County earlier this week.

Boucher said he is investigating a similar theft from the machine at the Plainfield post office on Monday.

"A reward of up to $10,000 is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the vending machine break-ins at the Greencastle and Plainfield post offices," Boucher said.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Greencastle Police Department at 653-2925 or the postal inspectors office at (317) 328-2500.

As a result of the theft, Adams said he is considering not replacing the vending machine in the post office lobby.

Also on Friday, police were investigating the apparent theft of the American flag from the Greencastle Fire Department. The fire department is located directly behind the post office.

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