The Irvine Police Department reported a bust on possible mail theft suspects, detailing the arrest on their Facebook page. On a route that was as routine as it gets in the business of law enforcement, license plate readers, those silent sentinels of the street, flagged a car linked to a suspected mail thief in the northern sector of the city.
Officers, keen on the ways of such culprits, found the vehicle conveniently parked near a cluster of mailboxes, the sort of place where stolen letters might soon find a new, illicit destination. According to the Facebook post by the Irvine Police Department, the discovery included a trove of other people’s mail and mailbox keys stashed in a large trash bag. One of the pair nabbed was on probation, which facilitated a vehicle search, with the law once again closing its net on those who would dare pilfer postal properties.
Tristian Quang Le, 54, of Anaheim, and Terri Thuy Vellpradit, 49, of Garden Grove, didn’t elude the long arm of the law for long; they were promptly apprehended on charges that include "felony ID theft," "burglary tools," and "conspiracy". The duo found themselves not sorting through others’ correspondence but rather being sorted into the system themselves, as they were quickly taken into the custody of the Orange County Jail.
The Irvine Police's tongue-in-cheek recount of the event added a slight edge of humor to the otherwise serious situation: "They were packaged up and delivered quicker than an express mail envelope to Orange County Jail," the post read, attempting to seal the narrative with a bow of witticism. A cautionary hashtag followed, affirming #DONTCOMMITCRIMEINIRVINE, a reminder that this city's fight against crime, much like the postal service, neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. Irvine PD seems determined to live up to that creed, though they can do without the snow, of course.
