Private e-mails can be opened by hackers and their sensitive information stolen. Traditional mail, meanwhile, is also vulnerable to thieves.

Police in Solebury Township, Pennsylvania, USA, are hunting down car-riding persons suspected of stealing mail from neighborhood mailboxes. The thieves target mail containing personal and business checks that they alter so they can encash them.

More daring than mailbox thieves are pilferers directly targeting post offices. The Los Alamos Post Office in California fell victim to thieves who opened postal boxes and took away mail and packages on 19 August.

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office was able to track down the thieves with the help of one of their victims.

Suspects Virginia Franchessca Lara, 27, from Santa Maria, and Donald Ashton Terry, 37, of Riverside were eventually arrested and charged with possession of checks with intent to commit fraud, credit card theft, identity theft and conspiracy, among other things, Fox News reported.

Lara and Terry were caught redhanded when police raided their house on E. Sunrise Drive in Santa Maria. Stolen mail were found in their possession, including the victim’s package that was used to track them down.

The woman mailer had earlier fallen victim to mail thieves so she put an AirTag inside a package and waited for it to be stolen so the thieves could be tracked and caught.

AirTag is a coin-size Apple device that emits a GPS signal to locate lost items like keys and bags. It is tracked through an iPhone app.

Mail thieves may now be deterred from stealing packages after the arrest of the two who were tagged by police with the help of an AirTag.