Oakland, CA, Letter Carrier Nestor Quilates was delivering mail on a spring day in the suburb of Piedmont when he noticed something alarming: Strangers were removing items from the home of a customer he knew was hospitalized.
Quilates recorded the license plate number of the suspects’ vehicle and alerted a neighbor, who called police.
Officers soon arrived and determined that the residence had been burglarized. With information from Quilates, as well as footage from nearby security cameras, police were able to locate the thieves, arrest them and recover the stolen goods.
The Postal Service employee was subsequently honored at a Piedmont City Council meeting, where the mayor proclaimed June 4 to be Nestor Quilates Day.
“I’m just a law-abiding citizen doing the right thing,” Quilates told the local NBC station.