In early October 2010, a mailbox outside the Riverside postal station on the 400 block of North Retta Street, Fort Worth, Texas was broken into.
Watchdog Nation citizen LuAnn Hoppe reported the incident to us, and we verified it with Fort Worth police. Several pieces of mail were found in a large box around the corner. Some of the removed mail was returned, police say.
Don't use these blue collection mailboxes outside post offices. They are too easy to steal from.
Dave Lieber’s Watchdog column in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram — and WatchdogNation.com — are the only forums revealing mailbox break-ins in North Texas to the public.
Neither the post office nor the U.S. Postal Inspection Service are willing to release details. Many break-ins are not even reported to city police. I count on you to be our eyes and ears. So if you learn of any break-ins, please report them by e-mail to this address: watchdog@star-telegram.com. Or use the Contact Us form on WatchdogNation.com.
Earlier this year, Dave Lieber filed a federal open-records request and learned that more than 60 mailboxes outside post offices in Tarrant County and nearby cities were broken into last year.
So when you hear about a break-in (and they usually happen before the holidays when thieves are looking for gift cards, cash and checks), let us know. And please don’t mail letters in public mailboxes anymore. Go inside the post office and use those slots. Or give them to a carrier. Or place them in home mailbox if the mailbox is locked. If you have an outdoor mailbox that is unlocked, and you don’t fetch your mail the second the postal carrier leaves, then consider getting one of those locking mailboxes at any hardware store.
This is the easiest way for you to stop identity theft, too.
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Read below Watchdog Nation’s previous reports about mailbox theft and our federal Freedom of Information Act request.
Watchdog Nation exposes mailbox bandit’s crime spree
Watchdog Nation Alert: Don’t use the outdoor mailboxes at post office anymore
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Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation. The new 2010 edition of his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, is out. Revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards in 2009 for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber
