A woman who allegedly used stolen master keys to raid mailboxes across Chicago and a man accused of breaking through an apartment complex wall to steal packages are celebrating “fresh starts” as graduates of Cook County’s Drug Treatment Court, according to Chief Judge Timothy Evans.
Kalea Blanke, 35, once described by prosecutors as a serial mail thief, admitted last year to six burglaries in neighborhoods ranging from Uptown to Wicker Park. Chicago police arrested her in a South Side garage and found a U.S. Postal Service master key, known as an arrow key, lying in plain sight. Officers also discovered a set of wrenches she allegedly filed into crude replicas of arrow keys.
Blanke’s thefts stretched across North Center, Lincoln Park, the Loop, and other neighborhoods, where prosecutors said she used her keys to plunder locked mailboxes…