VIDEO: 'Wanted' Poster Thwarts Mail Thief At Denver Apartment Building

DENVER (CBS4) - A pattern mail thief was stopped in her tracks last month when she saw a wanted poster with her picture on it. After being repeatedly ripped off by the thief, a Denver landlord tried a new tactic to put a stop to the thefts.

"Hopefully that deters her from visiting us again," said Jai Maitri, who lives in the apartment building in Congress Park.

Surveillance video shows the woman entering the vestibule of the apartment building four times in September, usually late at night or in the pre-dawn hours, and breaking into residents mailboxes and stealing mail.

Police say mail thieves are typically looking for information that can help them steal a residents identity and then cause financial havoc.

The woman, with clearly visible tattoos on her upper left arm, would sometimes come by herself, but in other cases, she had another person with her. In one of the videos she can be seen using a key to pry open the mailboxes.

The building owner mounted two cameras to try to deter the thief, but the woman either didn't notice them or didn't care as she kept returning.

"I think its a violation, absultely a breach of trust," said Maitri. The building owner contacted police and postal inspectors, but said not much happened. So he decided to try a new tactic: he made up a wanted poster with the woman's photo on it along with an offer of a $250 reward for her apprehension.

He then posted the flyer on the front door of his building.

In late September, the woman can be seen approaching the 12-unit apartment building with a man, but the man appears to spot the wanted poster on the door and points it out to the woman.

She seems to read it, tears it off the door then leaves the scene without trying to again break in to the mailboxes.

"It's a great solution given the ability of police and the postal inspectors to engage in this crime is limited," observed Maitri.

He says since the wanted posters went up, the woman has not returned.