Holt man arrested after stealing mail, deputy hospitalized

HOLT, Mich (WLNS) — Holt homeowners were shocked to learn that someone’s been stealing mail out of their neighbors’ mailboxes.

At around 4 a.m. Tuesday, Ingham County Sheriff’s Deputies were patrolling a neighborhood in Holt, when they saw someone acting suspiciously near Featherstone Dr. and Kinglet Ct. The suspect, later identified as Taron Gentry, 29, tried to run away but was later caught and arrested, and one of the deputies was injured during the arrest.

Don Sonnenberg, a Holt resident who has lived in the area all his life, says he might know why someone would steal mail from their neighbors.

“They take the checks and wash ’em off,” said Sonnenberg. “Cancel out certain things. Put what they want on them and cash ’em.”

He says he has to take extra precautions to keep his mailed checks safe.

“I wait till I see the mailman, then I put it out,” said Sonnenberg. “So it’s not in the mailbox very long, or like I said, I take them down to the corner to the big blue steel mailboxes. So they can’t get into them.”

Sunshine Collins, also a Holt resident who has lived at her home for six years, says she prefers to pay her bills online rather than mail them in.

“It’s a lot faster and a little more secure,” said Collins. “We don’t have to worry about anything getting misplaced or stolen.”

Sheriff Scott Wriggelsworth, with the Ingham County Sheriff’s Department, says the deputies were originally sent to the neighborhood to patrol.

“We saw something that didn’t quite look right,” said Wriggelsworth.  “We went to investigate it. Through the course of that investigation, the guy was taken into custody and that’s when we learned he had been stealing mail that hadn’t been reported yet.”

He says if you think your mail is being tampered with, to contact your local authorities.

The investigation is still ongoing.

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