A Seattle man was recently charged with two counts of possession of stolen mail after he allegedly took mail from six Kirkland residents among 40 others in the Puget Sound area.

Hossein Shaghaghi, 26, was supposed to be arraigned today but did not appear. He now has a $5,000 bench warrant out for his arrest.

On Dec. 13, 2012, a Kenmore deputy saw Shaghaghi, who was driving a silver Mitsubishi Gallant, reach into a mailbox with gloved hands on 78th Avenue Northeast, just at the boundary of Kenmore and Kirkland.

The deputy ran Shaghaghi’s license plate and discovered the vehicle was registered out of Seattle, which caused the deputy to believe he may be stealing the mail.

The deputy saw Shaghaghi pull into a driveway, but because the deputy often patrols the area at least twice a day, he did not recognize Shaghaghi’s car belonging to that home.

The deputy approached Shaghaghi, who informed the officer he had been at a friend’s house down the street and was placing blue flyers from his church in the mailboxes in the area.

“While talking to Hossein, [the deputy] noticed a large military style duffle bag on the front passenger side floor board that appeared to be three quarters full,” probably cause documents state. “… On the front passenger seat [the deputy] saw the glove he had removed and what [he] recognized through training and experience as a black plastic homemade smoking pipe often used to smoke prescription pills off the surface of tin foil.”

The deputy said he did not see any blue flyers but the car was filled with assorted boxes, bags, tools and food in the backseat.

Shaghaghi, appearing nervous, could not keep his hands out of his pockets and told the officer he was planning on parking at the residence until a friend called.

The suspect denied having identification on him but told the deputy a different name, later discovered to be his brother’s name. After he gave consent to a pat down, the officer discovered two debit cards and three electronic access devices.

The deputy arrested Shaghaghi until he could verify the cards weren’t stolen and the suspect continued to act suspicious.

A second officer joined the two and looked in the mailboxes where Shaghaghi said he was placing blue flyers but found none.

After running Shaghaghi’s correct name, the deputy discovered he had a pending third-degree theft warrant, but the suspect still denied he was Hossein Shaghaghi.

But after calling the suspect’s phone, whose name was listed as Hosein Shaghaghi, the deputy noticed a few pieces of mail sticking out from under the driver’s floor mat.

The suspect informed police his wallet was in the glove box and gave them permission to retrieve it. However, when doing so, an officer saw a large white plastic postal bag with a Kirkland zip code in the back seat.

“The bag was a post office waterproof type bag that had already been delivered,” court documents state.

The wallet had an ID that did not look like the suspect, and he was advised of his Miranda rights. Officers later confirmed the suspects real identity after looking at his most recent booking photo.

Shaghaghi’s car was impounded for a search warrant soon after.

After the search warrant was approved the next day, the deputy found a green duffle bag full of stolen mail, a postal bag that contained a package for a Kirkland resident and a receipt for a holiday door mat that was ordered by another Kirkland resident. The suspect’s wallet contained five credit/debit cards with other people’s names and drug paraphernalia.

Police eventually found mail belonging to 40 individual victims, 29 of which stated they did not know the suspect. The others could not be contacted.