Suspected Sonoma County mail thieves arrested at Rohnert Park motel

Two wanted parolees were jailed after Sonoma County deputies last week found them at a Rohnert Park motel with two large garbage bags of stolen mail, including numerous checks that had been rewritten to be payable to one of the suspects, authorities said.

Nicki Lee Sproul, 32, of Penngrove, and Jesse Leon Villegas, 39, whose hometown was not identified, may have taken mail from hundreds of victims from Healdsburg to Rohnert Park, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.

The alleged theft was unveiled Thursday when a sheriff’s detective recognized Sproul as someone wanted on a no-bail warrant and watched her enter a ground-floor room at a Motel 6 on Commerce Boulevard, authorities said. He called for backup before confronting her and, as he waited, saw Villegas arrive in a car and go inside the room.

When deputies detained and searched the pair inside, they found a small amount of methamphetamine and a pipe in Villegas’ pocket, as well as the bags of mail and the washed checks made out to Villegas, authorities said. Both suspects were booked into jail and held without bail on suspected receipt of stolen property and identity theft.

Villegas also was held on suspected drug violations.

Anyone who may have been a victim is asked to hold off on contacting authorities until investigators wade through the evidence and track down the individuals whose mail was involved.