Stealing mail nets year in jail

A woman involved in a string of mail thefts across the Okanagan has been sentenced to almost a year in jail.

Kristina Michelle Anderson, 38, pleaded guilty to two counts of theft from mail, one count of using a stolen credit card, one count of possession of stolen property over $5,000 and one count of possession of stolen property under $5,000.

On Dec. 12, 2016, Anderson was arrested with her co-accused, Julian Hoekstra, after stealing mail along with a bait tracking device from a mailbox in Peachland. The two were released on bail. Following a string of mailbox thefts in May 2017 in Summerland, 19 cameras were placed in mailboxes.

During a review of surveillance from the cameras on June 4, 2017, a male and a female were seen opening a community mailbox and taking several items of mail.

The suspects were identified as Anderson and Hoekstra.

In October 2017, a community mailbox on Shannon Lake Road was broken into, and among the items stolen was a Walmart MasterCard.

A West Kelowna woman reported her MasterCard had been stolen and someone had spent $3,487.07 at various businesses around West Kelowna and Kelowna in one day.

The phone number used to activate the card was linked to Anderson.

In December 2017, police arrested Anderson and Hoekstra at a campsite in Peachland where they were living.

They were found in possession of stolen mail, along with a motorhome that had been stolen from Enterprise RV in July.

The motorhome, valued at $37,000, was equipped with a fake, homemade licence plate.

Hoekstra was also tending to a fire, burning pieces of mail, the court heard.

Crown prosecutor Grant Gray proposed a 12-month global sentence, while defence counsel Colby Johnson proposed a conditional sentence order.

“(This) is a kind of Bonnie and Clyde scenario,” said Johnson, referring to the notorious American criminals who travelled the central United States with their gang during the Great Depression, robbing people and killing when cornered or confronted. “Certainly the two of them together have been up to no good.”

Judge Gail Sinclair sentenced Anderson to 360 days in jail Tuesday in Kelowna.

With credit for time served, Anderson has 222 new days to serve.

Hoekstra is scheduled to go to trial in April.