Postman’s Theft-Busting Has Stamp of Heroism

Letter carrier Roel Acuestas didn’t like the looks of the situation.

First he spotted the car, a small white Honda carelessly parked in front of a house on Geronimo Lane, one of the 300 homes in Lake Forest that Acuestas has served for 14 years. The Madigans live there, he thought. Mike and Carol. They don’t have a little white Honda. Never did.

Acuestas made a mental note of the license plate just as a young man walked quickly out of the house and drove away, leaving Acuestas, 38, almost certain that he had just witnessed a burglary.

“I was angry,” he said Friday. “These are my customers. I wanted those guys in jail.”

After a little sleuthing and a little time, Acuestas came up with enough evidence for Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigators to arrest an 18-year-old man this week on suspicion of stealing property from at least nine South County homes in the last three months.

Acuestas, a 16-year veteran of the U.S. Postal Service, is a hero, homeowner Mike Madigan said. “We can’t believe he took it upon himself to take action. He’s like the neighborhood protector now. He did it because he cares--and we’ll never forget that.”

Acuestas’ mission wasn’t easy, though. At first, detectives weren’t able to track the burglar--who got away with the Madigans’ television and some cameras--because the license-plate number Acuestas remembered wound up being registered to a motorcycle.

That development frustrated the letter carrier no end. For two months, images of the Honda and its driver were burned in his memory. He dreamed about the car. He squeezed his eyes shut and in his mind tried again and again to zoom in on the personalized plate. Over and over, the same letters came into focus: Z-Z-I-T-R-O.

“It was making me crazy,” Acuestas said. “I knew we were so close.”

Finally, last week, Acuestas loaded a new battery and a fresh roll of film into his 35-millimeter camera and tucked it in the console of his government-issue minivan. His wife asked him what he planned to take pictures of that day.

“I’m going to get that car,” he told her. “I’m going to see it again, I just know it.”

He did.

It passed him that afternoon on El Toro Road as he headed to his Geronimo stop, and within minutes Acuestas was at a red light directly behind the Honda. Fumbling with the camera, he zeroed in on the tailgate, raising and lowering the lens to make sure the driver didn’t catch sight of him through the rearview mirror.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Acuestas said. “I was shaking so much. I took a zillion pictures of that plate.”

Then he drove to the Madigans’ house and raced to the front door.

“He was just gushing about seeing the car, seeing the car, and here--take this film--and how he couldn’t believe he really saw the car,” Carol Madigan said. “He was so happy. He kept saying ‘Praise the Lord!’ ”

Acuestas had been one letter off when he first reported the tag. But with the photos, sheriff’s detectives traced the car registration to an address in Mission Viejo and got a search warrant for the house. Inside, they found property reported stolen in nine residential burglaries this fall in three South County cities.

Rich Maher, a Postal Service spokesman, called the whole saga--and Acuestas’ actions--extraordinary.

“You hear about stuff like that from time to time, and it always amazes me,” Maher said. “It’s so easy to just not get involved or take that extra step. But then he goes out and takes that extra leap. It’s inspiring.”

A humble Acuestas smiled but shrugged off praise Friday, blushing as several neighbors on Geronimo Lane walked out of their homes to shake his hand and thank him as he made his rounds.

“It was nothing,” he said. “The residents have always been nice to me, and I’ve been doing this a long time. You get a little protective, I guess. You just want to help.”