UPDATE: Los Altos Police Misidentify Mail-Theft Suspects

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA – UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, NOV. 16, 11:45 a.m.

The Los Altos Police Department this morning announced that the agency misidentified two individuals as suspects in mail thefts in the Los Altos and Cupertino areas.

"It was determined that the individuals initially identified in a press release, on Nov. 15, 2016, were misidentified and are actually victims of identity theft," the department said in a statement. "Neither of the individuals identified in the initial press release have any involvement in this case."

Los Altos officers have been in contact with both victims and detectives are actively investigating two suspects for identify theft.

Police did, in fact, arrest a man and woman on Sunday after they were allegedly caught stealing mail in a residential neighborhood in Los Altos -- but it was not the two previously identified by name and with photographs.

The two people arrested and later released on citations illegally had the innocent man and woman's driver’s licenses and gave those when stopped by police, according to a report in the Mercury News.

Shortly after 7:15 p.m., a witness called police to report seeing suspicious activity in the 400 block of Torwood Lane. Police arrived and contacted the man, then found the woman sitting in a car nearby at Torwood Lane and Juanita Way.

Police determined that the two suspects had come to the neighborhood together and were in possession of mail stolen from nine mailboxes in Los Altos and Cupertino.

Both were arrested on suspicion of mail theft, and the man was also arrested on suspicion of drug paraphernalia possession.

If anyone has any information, which might assist with this investigation, they are asked to contact the Los Altos Police Department Detective Bureau at (650) 947-2770.

Editor's note: The original photos from the Los Altos PD of the two misidentified subjects have been removed from this site.

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ORIGINAL POST: WEDNESDAY, NOV. 16, 7:11 a.m.

Police arrested a man and woman from East Palo Alto on Sunday after they were allegedly caught stealing mail in a residential neighborhood in Los Altos.

Shortly after 7:15 p.m., a witness called police to report seeing suspicious activity in the 400 block of Torwood Lane.

Police arrived and contacted 28-year-old Kenneth Wayne Gates Jr.

Nichelle Rene Stanfield, 26, was reportedly sitting in a car nearby at Torwood Lane and Juanita Way.

Police reportedly determined that Stanfield and Gates had come to the neighborhood together and were in possession of mail stolen from nine mailboxes in Los Altos and Cupertino.

Both were arrested on suspicion of mail theft, and Stanfield was also arrested on suspicion of drug paraphernalia possession.

Los Altos detectives are working with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department and local agencies to identify additional victims.

• ALSO SEE: South Bay Woman Charged With Friday Morning Triple Homicide, Arson

--Bay City News contributed to this report/Images via LAPD