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A second person has been arrested and charged with stealing mail from post office boxes at the Downtown Honolulu post office on Merchant Street.
Federal prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against Sean Vincent Kim for mail theft in November. Authorities arrested Kim, 38, last week. On Friday U.S. Magistrate Judge Kenneth J. Mansfield ordered Kim’s release on a $25,000 unsecured signature bond pending further prosecution.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service said it installed surveillance cameras at the downtown post office in May after numerous post office box customers complained of missing mail. When postal inspectors showed video of a man breaking into post office boxes to a Honolulu police detective investigating Kim for credit card fraud, an HPD detective identified the man in the video as Kim.
The USPS said the video shows Kim using metal tools to break into boxes 12 times between Oct. 17 and Nov. 22 and even shows him sticking his entire arm into a box to steal mail from adjacent boxes. USPS said the HPD detective had earlier recovered checks and opened mail addressed to downtown post office customers in Kim’s Kamehameha Heights residence, including nine checks to Make-A-Wish Hawaii totaling $48,163.
A federal grand jury returned an indictment in September charging 50-year-old convicted state felon Richard Cui with stealing mail from the downtown post office nine times in June, July and August. Cui pleaded guilty last month and is facing a maximum five-year prison term at sentencing in April.
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