A 22-year-old Issaquah man awaits charges for being found last month with more than 50 pounds of stolen mail addressed to Eastside residents.

Officers identified 118 victims from Mercer Island, Issaquah, Sammamish and Bellevue and returned more than 200 pieces of unopened mail within a couple of weeks of recovery, Mercer Island Detective Sgt. Jeff Magnan said Tuesday.

“We always see an uptick (of mail theft) during tax time,” Magnan said. “It’s more than just the stealing of mail but what they can do afterward.”

Uncovered mail can lead to identity theft. That this batch of recovered mail was not open indicates these victims will not have to worry about that consequence, he said.

Mercer Island police arrested the suspect on Feb. 6 after an Island resident reported seeing a suspicious person and vehicle near a bank of opened lock boxes in the 2500 block of 82nd Ave. SE. Shortly thereafter, around 9:15 p.m., an island officer stopped the suspect for speeding in the 8100 block of W. Mercer Way.

The suspect had been in Sammamish an hour prior to the arrest, Magnan said.

Sammamish Detective Bill Albright suspects the first-time criminal is the same person responsible for some 30 incidents of prying open locked mailboxes within Sammamish from mid-December 2015 through early February. After the suspect’s arrest, the incidents subsided, he said.

After an investigation uncovered the suspect’s alleged link to rampant mail theft on the Eastside, Mercer Island officers booked the suspect into King County Jail for theft of mail and malicious mischief.

“All the way around, we got pretty lucky,” Magnan said, pointing out that without aid from residents, the suspect might have gotten away.

Due to its “complexity,” Magnan said the case is currently under investigation. It could be a month before charges are brought against the suspect in King County Superior Court, Magnan said.

The Issaquah man does not have a criminal history, Magnan said. He could be charged with up to 23 counts of possession of stolen mail, a class C felony.

While it is up to the court to decide his sentence, each count could come with more than a year of jail time, Magnan said.

The Mercer Island Police Department is in contact with other agencies to coordinate incidents linked to the suspect.

Officers continue to ask residents to keep a keen eye and report any suspicious activity. Checking the mailbox often and not having packages left on the doorstep are also ways to combat mail theft.