A local historic community is offering a $500 reward after an 86-year-old mailbox was reported stolen late December.
The cast-iron blue USPS box was mounted to a cement pillar on the corner of 5th Ave. and Juniper St. in the Old Escondido Historic District. On Dec. 31, a neighborhood resident discovered both the mailbox and pillar missing.
Carol Rea, president of the Historic District, says the hallmark was the last of its kind.
“We’re disappointed,” said Rea, who has lived in the Old Escondido for the past 10 years. “It’s important to our community. It’s part of the fabric that makes up our historic district. We just miss it. We want it back.”
In the aftermath of its disappearance, the Old Escondido Board of Directors held an emergency vote to approve the $500 reward, according to a media release.
The Old Escondido Historic was established in 1991 and features 800 homes constructed as early as the 1880s. Dated 1924, the purloined mailbox was recently refurnished by a local postal worker.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Escondido Police Department tip line at (760)743-8477 or the Historic District at (760) 291-7206.
