By MARSHA MERCER
An “OFFICIAL BUSINESS” brown envelope from the United
States Postal Inspection Service arrived in the mail the other day.
“Dear Postal Customer: The U.S. Postal Inspection
Service has recovered stolen mail bearing your name and address. The suspect(s)
were identified and prosecuted,” the letter inside said.
“It was determined he/she is not a postal employee and
is not affiliated with the Postal Service in any way. The original mail is
being returned to you in the condition in which it was recovered.”
With the letter was a sympathy card addressed to me
about my dad, who died in February. The card was postmarked Feb. 26 in Lubbock,
Texas. The envelope had been sliced open, but the card was intact.
I was amazed, and grateful, postal inspectors had gone
to the trouble to deliver a condolence card after seven months.
The inspection service is the U.S. Postal Service’s
law enforcement arm and the first federal law enforcement agency. Ben Franklin
appointed the first of what would become postal inspectors in 1775.
Today the postal service has many problems, largely
stemming from bad management at the top, so it’s a pleasant surprise when
something goes right.
Mail theft may seem like a crime out of the 19th
century Wild West, when robbers on horseback stopped stagecoaches and made off
with gold, cash and bank transfers.
In 2021, perps see opportunity in greeting cards and
business envelopes for cash, checks, money orders or gift cards. None that was in the card to me, which contained only kind
words.
The inspection service’s letter included a case
number, and I searched online to no avail. But I did find many news stories
about people around the country being charged with mail theft. One report
caught my eye.
A man, 22, and woman, 35, were indicted Oct. 15 in
Lubbock and charged with conspiracy to possess stolen mail and possessing
stolen mail.
The two, who worked for a contractor that loads USPS
mail on and off planes at the airport, allegedly looked through the mail while
on the job Feb. 25 and 26 and stole eight checks totaling more than $2.3
million. Two were corporate checks, one for $2 million and another for about
$242,000, news reports said.
I don’t know if the duo also happened upon the card
addressed to me in Virginia on Feb. 26.
Most postal workers are dedicated and honest, although
there are bad apples. One postal worker in Lubbock charged with mail theft admitted
he stole mail every day he was on the job for four months last year.
Many, if not most, mail theft cases in the news are
outside jobs. In Mount Jackson, Va., a man was charged Oct. 5 with 28 counts of
identity theft to defraud less than $1,000, 12 counts of financial fraud and
other crimes.
He allegedly stole people’s mail and used their personal
information to open several accounts and credit cards in their names.
That wasn’t the extent of his troubles with the law.
After the local sheriff and police officers went to his home, the man was also
charged with 10 counts of animal cruelty and five counts of inadequate care by
owner, The Northern Virginia Daily reported.
Nearly everyone has a story to tell about mail delayed
or lost. The inspection service received about 300,000 mail theft complaints in
the year that ended in February – and could investigate only a fraction of
those cases.
Its 1,300 inspectors and 500 uniformed police officers
around the country have responsibility for investigating about 200 federal
crimes besides mail theft.
They protect postal workers, intercept illegal narcotics
and hazardous materials sent through the mail, and investigate cybercrimes,
consumer fraud and scams against veterans and the elderly, among other things. The
inspection service also investigates COVID-19 scams and makes sure pandemic
relief checks reach their rightful destinations.
To keep mail safe: retrieve mail promptly; deposit mail inside the post office, in blue collection boxes before the last collection of the day or hand it to a mail carrier; and never send cash. Learn more.
It’s not the Wild West, but some things don’t change. We’re
all potential victims of mail theft, and postal inspectors can’t catch all the criminals.
©2021 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
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