People high on meth can stay awake and focused on repetitive tasks for days, making them adept at stealing from mailboxes and altering checks and documents. Using common solvents like acetone, mail snatchers "wash" and rewrite checks to themselves for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. They have no problem spending hours perfecting a watermark or re-arranging account numbers.

"What the bad guys have found out is that identity theft is a much easier way to get money for their drugs," Torgensen said. "It's not really dangerous."

Hannah, a recovering meth addict, said mail and identity theft was "something to tweak on."

"When you get high, you have nothing to do but fidget. While you fidget, you might as well make some money."

Hannah, 27, used to run around with a guy who called himself "The Fraud God." He often enlisted other meth addicts to steal mail in exchange for drugs, groceries or car and utilities payments.

"He used young mothers who were desperate to stay high and stay afloat," she said.

Danielle, a 22-year-old recovering meth addict, figures she stole from hundreds of mailboxes, often on Salt Lake City's affluent east side "just because people had more money."

At first she only worked at night, but as her addiction deepened, she followed the mail truck around during the day. Within two hours, Danielle said, she could hitchhike to a neighborhood, steal checks, make a fake ID and get money for drugs.

"It all stemmed from getting in the mailbox and getting things," she said.

The Tooele County Major Crimes Task Force broke up a large theft ring in February, finding personal information on hundreds of Tooele and Salt Lake County residents in a 41-year-old Tooele man's home. Officers seized printers, scanners and computers believed to be used to create fake identities.

Investigators suspect some of the information was obtained through mail theft. They also found methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia.

The Secret Service office in Salt Lake City took over the case, but spokesman Glen Passey said he couldn't comment on it.

Businesses and homes are targets, though residential areas are more vulnerable.

Mail thieves often will break into several neighborhood cluster boxes or collection boxes at a time. Multiple thefts recently occurred in Midvale and Salt Lake City. In 2003, 14 collection boxes were hit in a Murray ZIP code in one night.

"The trend is to want to go after a box that has a lot of mail in it," Tuckett said.

Curbside mailboxes are easy marks, especially when the red flag is up. "It only takes two seconds to open up a mailbox to see if there's mail inside," Torgensen said.

"A red flag up on your mailbox is just an invitation for someone to steal your checks," said Ron Matekel, Tooele County chief deputy sheriff.