ELLSWORTH – Christmas Grinches have stolen money from gift cards sent through the mail.

Ellsworth police on Wednesday recovered about 50 pieces of mail taken from local boxes earlier this week, according to Detective Dottie Small.

The mail, sent to nine individual addresses, was discovered by the side of the road in Trenton, Small said.

Although checks were still in some of the holiday cards, any cash that had been included was missing.

Police on Wednesday had not determined how much money was taken, Small said.

“The people don’t know how much was sent,” she said.

Small said it appears that most of the mail was taken on Monday. All of the individual pieces carried postmarks dating Dec. 19 or 20, she said.

This is the second time this month police have investigated mail theft. On Dec. 9, a local woman reported that her medication was missing. The prescription had been mailed, but it never arrived, she said.

Small cautioned residents to be aware of unfamiliar vehicles parked near rural mailboxes. Anyone who sees someone near a mailbox, she said, should try to write down the license plate of the car and a description of the person and the car, and they should call police.