A California has been caught on video snatching up ballots from mailboxes, leaving residence concern about the election.

From fox5sandiego.com

ESCONDIDO, Calif. — A mail thief moving through a North County neighborhood snatched up ballots along with the other contents of mailboxes lining the street, leaving residents concerned ahead of Election Day.

David Sprouse’s surveillance cameras captured the man stealing his mail, and several of his neighbors’ as well, in the Summer Creek area of Escondido just before midnight Tuesday.

“It was a younger looking man, happened to come down the sidewalk. He was wearing a ball cap, face mask, gloves. (He) carefully opened up our mailbox and took out all of our mail,” Sprouse told FOX 5, sharing the video.

The thief proceeded to do the same thing to the mailbox next door.

The next morning, a resident on the block found a pile of mail from houses up and down the street — including some ballots — sitting on a car nearby, apparently discarded by the thief. She was able to return those parcels to their proper addresses.

Sprouse said it wasn’t until the following morning when he found out his mail was stolen and he checked the security recording. He says it was surprising this happened on the same day ballots were delivered, and that it was the first time in at least 10 years somebody has stolen his mail.

The security of voting by mail has never been more important than in 2020, when California is sending mail ballots to every registered voter in an attempt to keep people safe during the coronavirus pandemic.