An FBI raid at a home in Baldwin Park left neighbors shaken after agents attempted to locate a man believed to be targeting USPS mail carriers in robberies.
“I was woken up around 6 a.m. with sirens blaring and police on megaphones,” Fernando Valentin told NBC4.
A boarded-up home on Big Dalton Avenue was the subject of a federal raid on Tuesday. Agents believed the home was where Ruben Baca Lopez, who is wanted on suspicion of robbing mail carriers at gunpoint, had taken shelter.
“This suspect did rob our mail carriers while they were doing their job while they were delivering the mail,” said Marjan Barrigan Husted of the United States Postel Inspection Service. “So, we take it very seriously to protect our letter carriers.”
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Two USPS workers were robbed in separate incidents a month apart – on April 6 and May 6. It is unclear what exactly the robber got away with.
“Mail carriers are targets sometimes because of what they are carrying,” Husted said. “It could be personal items like their cell phone or their wallet but more than likely it’s checks or something valuable in the mail that these criminals are going after.”
Witnesses told NBC4 they’ve seen the suspect at that home in the past.
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Despite the violence, the Postal Inspection Service said mail robberies have decreased by 21% in the past year. In the meantime, it is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information that will lead to the arrest of Lopez.
“He does go all over LA County,” Husted said. “And what we do know is that he’s often on foot when he approaches mail carriers. He doesn’t have his own vehicle. He uses rideshare so we would urge anyone who works for rideshare to keep and eye out.”
