One of the large blue mail boxes bolted to the sidewalk outside the Topanga Post Office was stolen over the weekend of Jan. 23-24. The box was later found empty and abandoned near Alta Vista Road. Postmaster Mabel Christie, who has managed the Post Office at 101 S. Topanga Canyon Blvd. for five years, said when they found the box it was cut open and destroyed. “A customer told me she had some checks in there,� Christie said. “It’s a lot of mess.� Christie said they did the mail collection on Saturday evening and when they came back on Monday, the box was gone. “We have the information, and we are talking with the postal police,� she said. “There are no suspects; nobody knows who it is, we don’t know who did it. There are no pictures and no cameras. The boxes are bolted down but close to the wall.� Additionally, Christie said theft was the reason she had to remove the large mailbox from the Sotheby’s Real Estate office on the Boulevard. “We saw that they were putting the sticky thing in and removing the letters,� she said. “They were taking mail from the people dropping it off.� The Topanga Post Office serves 6,368 Topanga residents with a median income of $124,015, according to the USPS website. The site estimates that approximately 10,164 packages pass through the post office each year. Mailboxes are protected by federal law and crimes against mailboxes (and the mail inside) are investigated by Postal Inspectors. Those who are convicted of destruction of federal property could spend up to three years in jail and be fined up to $250,000. If you have any information about the theft, report it to the United States Postal Inspection Service at (800) 275-8777; or wuspis.gov.