Police: Woman caught stealing hundreds of pieces of mail

ROSWELL, Ga. — Roswell police say a tip from a Johns Creek homeowner led them to a large stash of stolen mail and the woman they believe took it.

Steve Musser told Channel 2's Mike Petchenik that his neighbor in the Studdiford subdivision was awakened by a storm last week and looked out her window to see a strange car driving from mailbox to mailbox.

“She got dressed quick, got in her car and followed the person in their car over to Woodfall neighborhood when the person taking the mail noticed she was being followed and took off,” Musser said.

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Musser said neighbors later realized they didn’t receive their mail that day.

“I guess people are just really, really, desperate and they’re taking anything they can get,” he said.

Later in the day, Roswell police told Petchenik they got a call from Johns Creek police about a suspicious discovery.

“A Johns Creek police officer that had gone to a house and the homeowner noticed that an acquaintance that was staying at his residence had a large amount of mail that didn’t belong to her,” said Roswell Officer Lisa Holland. “He went to go wake her up and found a huge pile of mail, like over 300 pieces of mail that was in this room. He went through it and noticed that none of it belonged to her.”

An incident report from Johns Creek Police said that woman, Hollan Shean, admitted she’d stolen the mail while “high on drugs.”

“They had a description of the person they saw taking mail from their mailbox which matched the description of this person,” she said.

Shean, of Woodstock, faces mail theft charges. The U.S. postal inspector is involved, but Holland said, at this point, they haven’t filed additional charges.

“ID theft can stem through this type of thing and now tax return season is here, refund checks are being delivered to mailboxes,” she said. “We want people to be on guard with their mailboxes. If you are going to be out of town, stop your mail. You may want to invest in the type of mailbox that locks.”

Musser told Petchenik he’s thankful police made a quick arrest.

“I think the police deserve a lot of credit for making this arrest and they were on it, immediately,” he said. “I hope she gets her full justice.”

Cox Media Group