LOS ANGELES  - Mel Gibson's copy of the final cut of "The Beaver" was stolen from the mailbox outside his Malibu home on Wednesday.

Summit Entertainment gave Gibson a copy of the final cut to screen at home and put in his mailbox when he was done.

"When the courier came to pick it up, it wasn't there. They went out to check, and apparently someone prior to the courier took it out of the mailbox and made off with it," Lieutenant Rich Erickson of the Malibu/Lost Hills Station Sheriff's Department told The Hollywood Reporter.

Continues Erickson, "It's a $10 DVD. We're treating it as a petty theft at this point."

As for the punishment, the Lieutenant tells THR, "It's a misdemeanor crime. It's considered a minor crime."

Erickson says Gibson didn't physically put the DVD in the mailbox.

"A detective is assigned to the case, and will do some follow up," he adds of the crime, as first reported by TMZ.com.

A rep for Summit declined to comment to THR.

"The Beaver," directed by Jodie Foster, will premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in March. It hits U.S. theaters on March 23.