ST. LOUIS — Two teenagers are facing federal charges after police said they stole arrow keys from mail carriers at gunpoint earlier this month.
A press release from U.S. Attorney Sayler Fleming of the Eastern District of Missouri said 19-year-old Roy Lee Jones and 18-year-old Xavier Sean Boyd were charged with two counts of robbery and two counts of theft of a mail key on June 15.
According to charging documents, on June 9 Jones approached a letter carrier near Lindbergh Boulevard and New Halls Ferry Road in Florissant at around 12:30 p.m. and demanded his arrow key.
Less than 20 minutes later and about a half-mile away, Boyd robbed a different carrier of his arrow key.
Arrow keys are used to open certain USPS collection boxes.
St. Louis County police said they spotted the teenagers in a Volkswagen Tiguan and tried to pull them over. The teens sped away but crashed after a short chase.
Police said Jones and Boyd tried to run away, but police caught them and found guns and the arrow keys inside the car.
On June 8, the United States Postal Inspection Service released a wanted poster in connection with a June 1 armed robbery.
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The poster had a photo of a Volkswagen Tiguan, and inspectors said a man in his late teens robbed the mail carrier at gunpoint. Police and postal inspectors have not said if these two incidents were connected.
In April, law enforcement sources told the I-Team that mailboxes in the 631-- ZIP code prefix area, which includes parts of St. Louis and St. Louis County, have been hit hard by thieves who are using universal keys known as arrow keys to unlock mailboxes and take checks and other mail to steal identities.
