Be a little suspicious

[ashauler]

when you have no mail at all in your box. I recently had some mail stolen from my mailbox, right from my front porch. If I had not been expecting a package, I probably would not have known that someone stole my stuff.

The real point here is that when I contacted the postal inspector, I was told the following:
1. Postal inspectors are not responsible once mail has been delivered, or scanned as delivered.
2. From my local sub-station, there is an average of 1 report a week of mail theft.
3. The local Police don't have the resources to investigate unless the value of the stolen articles is over $1000. I filed a police report in case some identity theft stuff happens in the future.
4. Thought this was a federal crime, but the FBI wasn't even interested and said they would follow up with the local police in my district and see what they could do.
5. Confirmed with the Community Policing officer for my beat that, indeed, there are lots of reports of mail theft each month. NONE have ever been solved or prosecuted to his knowledge.

So, Laurie and I spent the majority of our Saturday opening a PO box, forwarding mail, contacting creditors to change addresses and review activities, running credit reports, etc.....Now I'm seeming to remember several days in the last couple of months when we had zero mail, no junk, no catalouges, no nothing.........what a frightening possibility that someone has been pinching our mail.

You might want to check with your local community police or postal substation to see how prevalent this is in your area. We have a pretty active neighborhood watch and community association, but no-one knew how frequently this is happening.

[597]

That sucks. Just a bit of advice that you may want to monitor your bank account and contact your bank, they will probably monitor the account with you or look at suspicious transactions. I say this because I know of a customer, where i was the manager of a bank, who had his checks stolen from his mail box (all they need is the account #). The only good thing is we knew the guy and when the perp came in to cash the check we didn't allow it. (the same day he came in to complain that he never recieved his checks). You may even want to talk to the bank about issuing a new account number and slowly move everything into the new account just for precautions.(I know its a pain in the ass but it will stop someone from getting your money that otherwise could take months to get back).

[Thumper]

Another thing to think about if someone is stealing your mail is identity theft. A friend of mine had credit cards gotten under his name & charged to the tune of 50k. All worked out for him as far as the charges but his credit went down the drain even though he has proof the charges were not his. Cop said the info was most likely stolen from his trash can. Shred everything!!!!!

[ashauler]

Yeah, we have already taken the steps with the bank. We have pulled our credit reports, and have placed the fraud alerts in all our credit files so that anyone being asked to grant credit under our names and ss# will be directed to contact us prior to granting the credit. Identity theft was for sure our major concern here, and I think we have done all that we can to protect ourselves.

[CoventryCat86]

I've never had a problem like that. I live in the country with a rural mailbox out by the road and I have never had anything stolen from it.

[aceswired]

I was fairly sure a similar thing was happening at our old house. Over a couple of weeks, I had 3 packages that never showed up, even though the other parties sent them and in one case I had a DC# stating that it had been delivered. Personally, I suspected someone from the neighborhood just grabbing the packages (I work at a home office and frequently have office equipment & stuff delivered).

Strange part was that it was a pretty good suburban neighborhood. No place is safe, I guess.

[cigar no baka]

Well, this is why in my area, USPS is replacing old style mailboxes with official USPS boxes, that are made of metal, contain about 20-30 boxes for the whole street, and you need a key to get your mail. Unfortunately, I just moved into an older neighborhood that has not been converted.

[jiaguy]

You could always buy a mailbox that needs a key, realistically it won't stop anyone from stealing your mail, but it will let you know when the mailbox has been pried open.

[SkinnyDan]

Thankfully I live in an apartment where all the mail goes into locked boxes, plus my wife is the property manager so all packages go to her office.

[cigar no baka]

You could always buy a mailbox that needs a key, realistically it won't stop anyone from stealing your mail, but it will let you know when the mailbox has been pried open.

Then how does the USPS employee put mail in there? Or is there some kind of semi-standardized USPS lock I can buy for it?

[guado]

Then how does the USPS employee put mail in there? Or is there some kind of semi-standardized USPS lock I can buy for it?

That's what I was thinking. More than likely you have to buy a USPS approved locking mailbox. Kinda like TSA locks for your luggage.

Or this would work!
http://www.steelmailbox.com/html/secure_mail_vault.html

[UpStateMike]

Get one of these kinds of mailboxes. http://www.fortknoxmailbox.com/home.htm

If you have large items then they can give you a card to pick them up at the PO, or request anything that won't fix into the slot be delivered to your porch.

[jiaguy]

Its got a little swinging door at the top too small to fit a hand down, much like the ones int he links, but those are a little intense, I'm not getting million dollar checks.

[mills]

I had never had a problem like this, nor known anyone that had before I read this post. Now, my first shipment of cigars from cbid has mysteriously disappeared. Tracking info says delivered, but never got them. I called, and the manager told me that he talked to the carrier and said that he left the package there, but we checked soon after the mail came and it wasn't. Personally I think if anything, the carrier took it, so tomorrow I'm going to go to the Post Office and cause some trouble. I'm so mad, that was my first shipment of good cigars to build my stash!

Hmm, after raising a fuss at the post office yesterday, my 'already delivered' cigars show up today, 2 hours after the regular mail. Very interesting.

[chadth]

I don't know if this the case in your neighborhood but I live in an unincorporated county and we have "a guy" in a beat-up car the delivers a majority of letter mail (bills and spam). However, a USPS marked truck tends to deliver actual packages. This of course doesn't explain the delivered status unless USPS assumes something is delivered when it goes out on the truck...

-Chad