The U.S. Postal Service has temporarily halted mail delivery for an unknown number of Southeast Seattle residents because of a rapid increase in mail theft in the area, USPS officials said Friday.
Some customers in the 98118 ZIP code — roughly from Columbia City to Rainier Beach — have been directed to pick up their mail at their local postal annex, Postal Service spokesperson Kim Frum said in an email. About 50,000 people live in that ZIP code.
The Postal Service didn’t say Friday how many people are affected, when the decision to halt service was made or when service will resume.
Postal inspector John Wiegand in an interview cited a “rapid and large increase” in mail theft which led the Postal Service to make a decision to temporarily stop delivery “while we attempt to rectify a mail-theft issue in the area.” The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is the law-enforcement arm of the USPS, and has a few active mail-theft investigations in the area, according to Wiegand.