On Nov. 7, Rych Withers, KFCF 88.1 FM station manager, was dropping off some mail at the Tower District Post Office when he noticed a man taking all the Community Alliance newspapers from the newsstand next to the Post Office. Withers asked the man why he was taking the newspapers.
This thief identified himself as an ICE/INS agent and said he was going to distribute the papers at the Dollar Tree a short distance away. Withers asked why and, as the agent showed him his badge, was told that there is a $1,500 bounty on each undocumented person he arrests.
Withers described the man as white or possibly Latino, a little under six-feet tall, with a brown/gray beard and wearing a hat. After doing some other business in the Tower District, Withers drove by the Dollar Tree and saw the guy with a stack of papers near the front entrance of the store. It is likely that he was handing the Community Alliance newspaper to persons entering the store and using that as an opportunity to question them about their legal status.
The manager at Dollar Tree was asked about their video footage of this activity but said that their outside video surveillance camera was not working. The Post Office has a camera right above the location where the papers were taken, but the postal inspector told us that we would need a request from a law enforcement agency to access the relevant video footage.
Mark Salazar, deputy chief at the Fresno Police Department, seems interested in the case. Salazar wonders if the thief is with ICE/INS, seeing it as one possibility. Another is that this guy is impersonating an agent, and a third possibility is that he has mental health issues. Salazar will investigate and let us know what he finds out.
Keep in mind that it is illegal to steal our papers and that using our papers as a way to approach people (giving them credibility) damages our reputation. If you have information about the identity of this person, contact mikerhodes@comcast.net or call 559-978-4502.
Fresno City Council Member Annalisa Perea, who represents the Tower District, has offered a $250 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person who stole Community Alliance newspapers from the Tower Post Office rack, as written about in the article on this page. If you have any information about the theft, contact Mike Rhodes at mikerhodes@comcast.net.
