ORLANDO, Fla. — A new Office of Inspector General report found, despite being on notice for at least three years about the rise in mail theft and mail carrier attacks, the United States Postal Service has failed to act on its own initiatives to stop it.
The Office of Inspector General found in a sampling of five states, including Florida, where there should have been a total of 550 arrow keys in service, nearly a third — 155 — were missing. Of that, a vast majority — 140 — were not listed in the Postal Inspection Service’s own report tracking missing keys.
It’s not just leading to mail theft, though that’s happening in staggering numbers with more than 25,000 high-volume thefts in the first half of this year, but it’s putting a target on letter carriers. The number of attacks this year is on pace to more than double last year’s totals.