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Federal- Theft of Mail

Statute
18 USC 1708 (first paragraph). Theft of mail matter generally

Whoever steals, takes, or abstracts, or by fraud or deception obtains, or attempts so to obtain, from or out of any mail, post office, or station thereof, letter box, mail receptacle, or any mail route or other authorized depository for mail matter, or from a letter or mail carrier, any letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or abstracts or removes from any such letter, package, bag, or mail, any article or thing contained therein, or secretes, embezzles, or destroys any such letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or any article or thing contained therein shall be guilty of an offense against the United States.

Jury Instruction

The Defendant can be found guilty of that offense only if all of the following facts are proved beyond a reasonable doubt:
  1. That the letter, package, or other mail matter described in the indictment was in the United States mails, in a post office or station thereof, in a letter box, in a mail receptacle, in a mail route, in an authorized depository for mail matter, or with a letter or mail carrier; and
  2. That the Defendant did knowingly and willfully steal, take, or abstract it from the mail as charged in the indictment.

A private mail box or mail receptacle is an “authorized depository for mail matter.”

The words “steal,” “take,” and “abstract” include any act by which a person willfully obtains possession of property that belongs to someone else, without the owner’s permission and with the intent to deprive the owner of the benefits of ownership by converting it to one’s own use or the use of someone else.