Residents who claim a thief has been breaking into mailboxes at their Studio City building took matters into their own hands Tuesday night when they tracked down and confronted the suspect.
KTLA’s Annie Rose Ramos was told by residents living in the complex on the 4200 block of Longridge Avenue that the local mail carrier was robbed of a master key a couple of weeks ago, and their mailbox had been broken into several times since.
“For the past few weeks, we’ve had a gentleman going around breaking into the building,” one resident said. “We’ve reported it to the cops. We’ve reported it to the detective, and the postal service is aware of it.”
Surveillance video from Friday shows the suspect using a key to get into the boxes and dumping everything he found into a brown paper bag.
Flyers have been posted warning others to be on the lookout for the thief. “Check your mail daily as thefts have occurred the past 2 nights between 12AM and 4AM,” a portion of the flyer reads.
Tuesday night, a group of residents set out to look for the suspect and found him.
Timothy Brehmer, who was part of the group, said that the man tried to swat his phone away when he went to record him. Brehmer responded by pepper-spraying the suspect, who then scrambled to get into his vehicle.
The group, including Brehmer, then tried to stop the suspect and get him out of the Jeep.
“He pulled out a knife … I didn’t know if he stabbed me or not, but I got blood everywhere. I think it’s fine,” Brehmer said.
Brehmer says he then broke the suspect’s windshield with a baseball bat so he wouldn’t be able to see if he tried to drive away.
Officers responded to the scene around 11:13 p.m., but the suspect had left the location, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson confirmed to KTLA.
Video showed Brehmer being treated at the scene for what were described by authorities as minor injuries.
Police are still searching for the suspect, who is believed to have fled on a scooter.
KTLA’s Alexis Lewis contributed to this report.
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