We live in a beautiful haven where big city life rarely touches us.

The Sunday before Thanksgiving my husband put out the garbage and also put some outgoing mail in the outbox with the flag up.

It was to be picked up at our usual time, about 3:30 in the afternoon. As I left the house on Monday morning, I noticed the mailbox was open and the flag was down. Neither my husband, myself nor our tenant removed the mail, so I followed up with the post office.

They confirmed that our usual mail pick up was at about 3:30 p.m. and that there was no way the mail could have been picked up sooner.

So I called the sheriff and reported the incident. I was told that it probably was not a prank but a way for someone to get access to my personal information.

I quickly cancelled bank accounts and notified creditors, however, I realized that if the door to the box had not been left open I would never have known and my personal information would have been compromised.

Please be aware of your mail and if you have any doubts about it being received, check on it and take the necessary actions to protect yourselves.

Do not be a victim.

Anonymous

San Juan Island

— Editor’s note: The Journal may forego normal policy and publish a “letter to the editor” as anonymous in the event that identifying the author could lead to harm.