A husband and wife were arrested Tuesday for allegedly stealing hundreds of pieces of mail from collection boxes in Claremont.

According to Claremont police, an officer spotted a vehicle stopped on the east side of the Claremont Post Office, 140 Harvard Ave., around 3 a.m. near some blue mail-collection boxes. As the driver tried to pull away, the officer conducted a traffic stop.

Police said the driver consented to a search of the vehicle, which turned up “hundreds of pieces of mail, checks, a long thin strip of carpet with an adhesive backing and sticky rat/mouse traps.”

The vehicle’s occupants, 34-year-old Erik Gomez of Los Angeles, and 44-year-old Amida Urrutia of Lennox, were arrested on suspicion of identity theft, possession of stolen property, conspiracy and possession of burglary tools. The suspects, described by police as a married couple, were being held in lieu of $50,000 bail, police said.

Police urged anyone who may have placed mail in the blue collection boxes in the east alley of the post office after 4 p.m. Monday to contact police at 909-399-5411.

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