HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — An alert neighbor caught two people opening mailboxes before 5 a.m. Thursday in a Hillsborough County neighborhood.
“They [deputies] told me that somebody was stealing mail,” Michael Maxie said.
Maxie lives along Cold Creek Drive. According to authorities, a man and a woman were hiding behind bushes in front of Maxie’s home.
“They kept shining the flashlights in this area,” Maxie said.
Investigators said once Candice Cooney, 42, and the man saw a deputy in the neighborhood, they ran. Deputies said Cooney and the man were found with mail, containing people’s personal information.
“They [the deputies] were like sorting through something, you know, papers or something,” Maxie said.
Julie Nunez said she heard about the mail thefts a week ago and immediately worried. At that point, she did not know her mail had been stolen until Thursday morning when a deputy returned her mail.
“There (are) so many people out there who have the ability to use your personal information to their gain,” Nunez said.
Nunez suspects Cooney and her partner had something to do with her missing mail.
Deputies have only arrested Cooney. She is charged with unlawful possession of personal identification or another, loitering or prowling, and felony petit theft.
