FORT WORTH, Texas -- With your very personal information sitting curbside, unguarded, your mailbox is like a gold mine to identity thieves, but locking your mailbox can help keep crooks away, according to KXAS-TV.

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Doing so may have helped Charlie McLean avoid being victimized. One night away from home cost McLean months of headaches.

"We came back on Sunday and there was no mail there, which is unusual," McLean said.

Thieves had stolen his mail and within hours, went on a massive buying spree.

A locking mailbox is the obvious solution, said Bobbie Cox, CEO of the Fort Worth-based company Postal Vault.

"It's like leaving your wallet and credit cards, or the keys to the lock box at your bank, for anyone to come by and steal," Cox said.

Her solution to stop mail theft -- a mail vault.

Executives from Postal Vault were in Washington D.C. Thursday to discuss the possibility of the U.S. Postal Service becoming a retailer of the postal vault.

However, until then, it is available for purchase online at the link below or at select Home Depot locations.

On The Net: Postal Vault