Two Salem men were arrested on Tuesday and accused of stealing mail from five people, according to Marion County court records. Leobardo Bautista-Gonzalez, 36, and Jhan J. Cruz-Munoz, 26, were charged on Tuesday in Marion County Circuit Court with five counts of mail theft. Their arrests come after several others were accused last year of larger mail theft operations in Salem. Residents for years have shared concerns about their mailboxes being broken into. A Salem Police Department affidavit provides an account of the latest arrests. Shortly before 2 a.m. on Tuesday, an officer was patrolling near the 3200 block of Northeast Hyacinth Street in the Northgate neighborhood when he saw a car blocking a bicycle lane and stopped against traffic. The car was parked near a bank of mailboxes. As the officer “turned around to contact” two men in the car, the driver started driving into a driveway but ended up stopping part-way in and blocking the sidewalk, the affidavit said. While he spoke with the men, he saw “multiple pieces of mail strewn about the back seat.” “I read the names that I could see on the mail to the occupants, asking if the names were them, but they both responded with ‘No,’” the officer wrote. He checked the vehicle identification number and saw it had been reported stolen out of Marion County on Dec. 30. The officer reported that Cruz-Munoz had a felony warrant for his arrest, and Bautista-Gonzalez had warrants out of Wyoming. Information about the warrants couldn’t be established. A search of the car turned up “a large amount” of mail, some torn open in the back seat, according to the affidavit. The mail listed seven people with addresses in Salem and Keizer. Police found multiple debit and credit cards in Bautista-Gonzalez’ wallet with other people’s names on them. Bautista-Gonzalez told police he’d found all the cards in trash cans and “did not have any intention of using them,” the affidavit said. The officer then noticed that two nearby mailbox banks had doors left open. Both men were arrested and booked into the Marion County Jail. The jail’s roster did not show them in custody as of Wednesday afternoon. Bautista-Gonzalez also has pending charges in Washington County of first-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, second degree theft and meth possession, as well as charges in Marion County of theft, driving under the influence of intoxicants and reckless driving. Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053. A MOMENT MORE, PLEASE– If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. Please take a moment and sign up now – easy and secure: SUBSCRIBE. The post Duo accused of stealing mail from five people in Salem, Keizer appeared first on Salem Reporter.