Credit cards, passports, licences: Metro Vancouver police find thousands of pieces of stolen mail

Thousands of pieces of stolen mail, IDs seized New Westminster police believe they have uncovered a huge fraud ring involving thousands and thousands of pieces of stolen mail.

New Westminster police believe they uncovered evidence of an identity fraud operation when they found some 8,000 pieces of stolen mail in a home in the city’s Uptown neighbourhood.

Credit cards, driver’s licences, and passports from all over the world were among the enormous mound of items seized.

There were also three imitation firearms, and one that was real with ammunition.

“We do know that this is a very invasive crime, and this could've wreaked havoc on some people’s lives,” said Sgt. Andrew Leaver of the New Westminster Police Department.

“So we'd be looking to identify those people, and hopefully provide, if not closure, some extra safety measures to them at this point.”

Police could not provide many details about what led them to the location on Sept. 11, but said they were responding to an unrelated call.

They are now sifting through all of the evidence, trying to figure out how many of the items are real, how many are counterfeit, and how far across the province or country the impact reaches.

“If you're missing mail, report it,” advised Leaver. “If you think that you're a victim call us, we do believe this is underreported.”