Many of us have been the victims of porch piracy—the theft of packages and mail left at our door. But you may be surprised to hear that U.S. Postal Service workers themselves, as well as USPS buildings, are also targeted for theft. Serious crimes, including robberies against Postal Service letter carriers, have increased in recent years, raising concerns about delivery workers’ safety as well as the security of the mail they carry.
Today’s WatchBlog post looks at our new report about crimes against letter carriers and efforts to respond to them.
Some of these crimes are “smash-and-grab,” but criminals are also getting more sophisticated. We found that robbers have increasingly targeted the universal keys (known as “arrow keys”) that USPS employees use to access mailboxes. Criminals who have these keys can steal mail from multiple mailboxes.
We also found that guns have been increasingly present during these robberies.
It would be easy to think these crimes only happen in cities. But they can happen anywhere across the country. The widespread nature of these crimes makes it challenging for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service—the law enforcement arm of USPS—to investigate and prevent.