RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – With mail theft on the rise across Virginia, both Republicans and Democrats in the General Assembly are looking to give local commonwealth’s attorneys more power to prosecute porch pirates.
“Where you have apartment complexes, and you see all these boxes below the mailboxes, it’s very vulnerable for theft,” Delegate Vivian Watts (D-Fairfax) told 8News.
Watts is working to pass a bill to create a state crime for mail theft that would allow local prosecutors to charge anyone who steals mail or packages from the U.S. Postal Service, UPS, FedEx and more with a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
Currently, mail theft is only a federal crime, meaning charges must be brought by federal prosecutors.
“They’re picking and choosing. They’re not going after what they regard as “petty” which might still involve thousands of dollars, but is not the same kind of organized crime that the feds tend to go after,” Watts explained.
Watts added that she introduced the bill after the Virginia Bankers Association contacted her about a rise in checks being swiped from people’s mailboxes.
“One to wash the check and re-write it, but actually that’s a minor part, as serious as that is, to the fact that with all the account information on the check, it really can do damage in identity theft and in very serious depletion of funds from accounts,” Watts told 8News.
Watt’s bill and its Senate cognate have received nearly unanimous support. However, Senator Lachersece Aird (D-Henrico) has consistently voted against it, with her office saying she has concerns about mail theft being classified as a felony.
