Open Letter to the U.S. Chief Postal Inspector

Memo to: Guy Cottrell

U.S. Chief Postal Inspector

The recipient: Guy Cottrell

From: Watchdog Nation

The sender: Newspaper columnist Dave Lieber

Dear Chief Inspector:

I write on behalf of thousands of people whose mail has been stolen from blue postal collection boxes in North Texas. My city, Fort Worth, leads the nation in mailbox thefts, according to records I obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

Sir, an incident last month shows how the crime-reporting system, such as it is, is faulty — and how innocent people are unnecessarily hurt because of a lack of information. You’re the leader of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. You can easily fix this.

As readers of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram // Dave Lieber Watchdog column already know, for more than two years, I have publicly shared information about mailbox thefts in the region, mostly because authorities refuse to do so. The postal inspectors who work for you say they cannot release date-and-place details of mail thefts from public boxes, at the request of the U.S. attorney’s office. Providing such information, they say, would jeopardize their criminal investigations.

Others, including me, believe that people have a right to know when something as important as their mail may have been stolen so they can work quickly to prevent identity theft.

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Case in point: a June 3 incident at the Trinity River post office on Oak Park Lane in Fort Worth.

A reader tipped me that the two outdoor blue boxes were missing. Where did they go?

When I called the post office, an employee who answered the phone told me that nothing had happened.

Then I called the U.S. Postal Service, and spokesman Sam Bolen told me that the mailboxes were defaced and taken out for repainting.

“We have nothing to indicate mail was stolen from these collection boxes,” Bolen said.

Well, I do.

Watchdog Nation took this photo in late 2009 of a mailbox break-in outside the Haltom City, Texas post office.

After I reported the conflicting statements by postal employees, I heard from two people who placed mail in Trinity River post office collection boxes June 3. They say their mail never arrived.

Both told me that they, like me, had tried to learn what happened and couldn’t get a straight answer.

Elaine Stoltz says checks she mailed were stolen from the box. She figured it out when the checks didn’t arrive at their destinations. Then someone walked into her bank with a temporary driver’s license in her name and withdrew $1,500 from her bank account. Stoltz believes that the thief used information from the stolen mail. Her bank covered the loss.

A Fort Worth man told me that his mailed checks also never arrived. Then someone used a fake check with his name to buy $290 worth of merchandise from Walmart.

The man said that when he called the postal inspector’s office to complain, an employee “tells me on the phone that as far as they could determine, no mail was missing.”

I must ask: How do they know? (Apparently, they don’t.)

That same man then stopped a mail carrier on his route. When asked, the carrier said, “We’re really not supposed to talk about it, but something did happen.”

Chief Inspector Cottrell, the solution is one that is used in other parts of the country. I’ve found that in other areas, authorities do release details of mailbox thefts. This helps victims begin cleaning up identity theft problems sooner rather than later.

Please change the policy in North Texas. Allow all public mailbox thefts to be reported. Be more forthcoming.

There’s no doubt that the postal inspectors in our region are good at what they do. In fiscal 2010, the Fort Worth office reported 195 arrests and 192 convictions related to mail and identity theft. That’s among the best in the nation, but then again, they have a lot to work with.

Tarrant County had 60 thefts in 2009 and more than 80 last year (and those don’t include thefts from private mailboxes).

Certainly, we have a special problem here and things are getting worse before they get better.

Thank you,

Dave Lieber

On behalf of Watchdog Nation

# # #

Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation.

Are you tired of fighting the bank, the credit card company, the electric company and the phone company? They can be worse than scammers the way they treat customers. A popular book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, shows you how to fight back — and win! The book is available at WatchdogNation.com as a hardcover, CD audio book, e-book and hey, what else do you need? The author is The Watchdog columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Visit our store. Now revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber

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Fort Worth is No. 1 in thefts from blue outdoor postal collection boxes

Fort Worth has a reputation for rodeos, art and friendly people. Today, sadly, Watchdog Nation gives Fort Worth another title.

And it hurts because Watchdog Nation is headquartered there.

Cowtown is the No. 1 city in America for thefts from blue outdoor postal collection boxes. Texas is the top state for such thefts.

That news comes courtesy of a Freedom of Information Act request to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. I requested details about mailbox thefts for 2010.

Watchdog Nation took this photo in late 2009 of a mailbox break-in outside the Haltom City, Texas post office.

Three hundred thefts from blue boxes were reported nationwide last year. Two hundred were in Texas; 34 were in California.

 

Of the 10 pages of a spreadsheet provided to me by the postal inspectors who investigate these crimes, seven pages related to Texas boxes.

Fort Worth had 45 reported thefts last year. Arlington had 28, Dallas 25, Houston 20, San Antonio 13, Grand Prairie 10 and Austin none.

Fort Worth had 1 of 7 of all mailbox thefts in the nation.

Why?

Police spokesmen in Arlington, Dallas and Fort Worth declined to speculate. The area office of the postal inspectors, which does not publicly report the crimes, meaning that customers cannot figure out whether their mail might have been stolen, also declined to comment.

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A. Lee Fritschler, a professor of public policy at George Mason University in Virginia, studies postal operations. When I asked him why Cowtown is No. 1, he joked, “You’re lawless down there.”

He questioned me closely about the data, then explained that there was not enough information to speculate.

He noted that only a small amount of mail is stolen from the boxes. “I’m a big critic of the way things are going, but they’re pretty good at not losing mail.”

I asked the national spokesman for the postal inspection service how much effort is put into catching the thieves.

Lawrence C. Dukes Jr. says the crimes, which inspectors call volume mail thefts, are usually conducted by organized groups. In fiscal 2010, the Fort Worth regional office reported 195 arrests and 192 convictions related to mail theft and identity theft, which is often the result of a mailbox break-in.

Of the 195 arrests, 46 arrests and 43 convictions were related to volume mail theft investigations.

I’ve learned that thieves either pry open the back of the box with a crowbar or use a fishing line and a sticky substance to remove mail.

Nationwide, Dukes says, volume mail thefts were down 12 percent from the previous year.

Not in Tarrant County, though, where I reported about 60 thefts in 2009. For 2010, I count more than 80.

Nationally, there were 213 arrests and 180 convictions of volume mail thieves. That means that about 1 in 5 volume mail thieves convicted nationally are from North Texas.

Dukes’ advice: “The safest method to mail letters is to bring your letters directly into the post office or hand them to your letter carrier. Postal customers should make every effort to mail letters before the posted collection times and avoid leaving mail in a collection box overnight or when the post office is closed.”

Visit Watchdog Nation HeadquartersDave Lieber's Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong

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Are you tired of fighting the bank, the credit card company, the electric company and the phone company? They can be worse than scammers the way they treat customers. A popular book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, shows you how to fight back — and win! The book is available at WatchdogNation.com as a hardcover, CD audio book, e-book and hey, what else do you need? The author is The Watchdog columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Visit our store. Now revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber

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AVAILABLE IN HARDCOVER, ON ITUNES (AUDIO), KINDLE AND IPAD

 

How to protect yourself from mailbox theft

Those blue postal collection boxes outside of post offices are sitting ducks for identity thieves. Getting mail out of them is as easy as licking an envelope.

Crimes occur but information is scarce

Yet the U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. Postal Inspection service don’t easily release the information about mailbox break-ins to the public. Rarely, do you see these break-ins listed in police crime reports. The only way to get the information is through the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

As readers of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Dave Lieber Watchdog column first learned, the problem of thefts from blue U.S. Postal Service collection boxes apparently hasn’t gotten any better in the past year. Watchdog Nation took a sample of its home Fort Worth postal district.

Mostly unreported crimes

A year ago, the Fort Worth postal district reported 60 mailbox thefts in 13 months. But in the past 11 months, there have been more than 80 incidents in the district, which includes Amarillo, Lubbock, Abilene and Decatur, too.

Most of the thefts are in Fort Worth and Arlington. (See the 3-page government release here.)

Fort Worth boxes were hit almost 40 times, with the crimes scattered throughout the city.

Arlington had 28 reported incidents. One blue collection box at 300 E. South St. was apparently hit eight times.

Other cities hit: Amarillo with five, Abilene with three, River Oaks and Euless with two each, and one each in Haslet, Haltom City, Watauga, Grand Prairie, Lubbock and Decatur.


Watchdog Nation took this photo in late 2009 of a mailbox break-in outside the Haltom City, Texas post office.


Watchdog Nation methodology

I asked for a list of all reported incidents of theft, vandalism and tampering involving the blue collection boxes in the last 11 months of 2010.

The Postal Inspection Service cautioned me about the data it sent me:

“These reports are the raw, unverified data provided by USPS employees. Some of the entries provided contain duplicate reports of possible thefts or vandalism, as well as unverified dates of possible thefts or vandalism.” (I eliminated the obvious duplicates.)

I asked for vandalism and tampering crimes, too, because it’s often hard to prove any mail was stolen, but a good indicator is whether a mailbox was vandalized or tampered with.

The data matches anecdotal evidence gleaned from readers in recent months. An Arlington man notified the Star-Telegram in December that mailbox break-ins in his city were “rampant.” A Fort Worth man contacted me in November about thefts at a collection box at the post office near South Hulen Street at 4450 Oak Park Lane (the list includes two incidents there in October).

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How bad is the problem?

John Breyault of the National Consumer League suggests that before you mail anything, you check the condition of a mailbox. “Is it in good repair? Is the lock on it secure? Does it look like it’s been tampered with somehow?”

He also offers an excellent idea: Check periodically with your residential carrier about mailbox thefts in your area.

A mailbox security expert tells me that along with thefts from mailboxes at homes, thefts at collection boxes remain a major problem nationwide.

Background

“It’s basically a crime that’s not being prosecuted because there’s too much of it to deal with,” says Michael Johnston, owner of USMailboxes. “The way I see it and experience it, it has increased tremendously in the last few years. It started out as a way for thieves to get drug money. Now the recession has made it worse.”

Ten years ago, Johnston was hired by the post office to strengthen the blue collection boxes in his home state of Oregon. “We went around and put those security bars on to help make it harder to break into without a key,” he said. “We also put a heavier lock that was harder to pick. And they put special locking nuts on the bolts in the ground so they couldn’t easily be taken off.

“I don’t know how to make them stronger. I don’t think they know either. The biggest problem up here now is they throw a chain around it and yank it out of the ground.”

The blue collection boxes are especially popular, he says, because they contain more mail, especially bill payments containing individual checks. Thieves can use the name, address, account and bank routing numbers on the checks for identity theft.

“The post office would like to remove the blue boxes,” Johnston says. “They would like to take them all off the streets and make people go to the post office or use their own mailbox to send mail out.”

What should you do?

If that’s true, the post office won’t state that publicly. In a statement to The Watchdog this week, Postal Inspection Service spokesman Michael J. Romano writes, “The Postal Service employs crime prevention countermeasures for collection box thefts, but for obvious reasons, this information is law enforcement sensitive and is not released to the public.

“We maintain that the U.S. mail is a very safe and secure way of conducting commerce with close to 600 million pieces of mail and packages successfully delivered daily.”

Still, the post office warns, “When possible, customers should avoid placing mail in a blue collection box after the last posted collection time or on a day mail is not scheduled to be picked up. If they must deposit mail during that time, they should use the lobby drop inside a post office.”

The boxes do not provide this information to consumers. But probably they should with signs. If the boxes are not completely safe, the people using them should know. Mail inside is a sitting target. That’s what the numbers show.

File your own request

If you want to file a freedom of information act request, here’s how you do it:

CHIEF POSTAL INSPECTOR
US POSTAL SERVICE
475 L’ENFANT PLAZA SW RM 3100
WASHINGTON DC 20260-2100

[Date]

FOIA REQUEST

Dear FOIA Officer:

Pursuant to the federal Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552, I request access to and copies of a listing of all reported incidents of:

– theft of mail from…

– vandalism of mailbox…

– tampering with ….

the blue collection mailboxes located outside all post offices, stations, substations, etc. in the [YOUR DISTRICT] from [GIVE DATES] to the date of this letter, Dec. 31, 2010.

I agree to pay reasonable duplication fees for the processing of this request, but ask that you first alert me to the charges so I may know before any work is done. You may call me about this at xxx-xxx-xxxx or e-mail to xxxxx@xxxxx.xxx.

If my request is denied in whole or part, I ask that you justify all deletions by reference to specific exemptions of the act. I will also expect you to release all segregable portions of otherwise exempt material. I, of course, reserve the right to appeal your decision to withhold any information or to deny a waiver of fees.

I look forward to your reply within 20 business days, as the statute requires.  Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely,

# # #

Visit Watchdog Nation HeadquartersDave Lieber's Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong

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Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, is the founder of Watchdog Nation. The new edition of his book, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation: Bite Back When Businesses and Scammers Do You Wrong, is available in hardcover, as a CD audio book, ebook and hey, what else do you need. Visit our store. Now revised and expanded, the book won two national book awards in 2009 for social change. Twitter @DaveLieber

Dave Lieber book that won two national awards for social change.

Watchdog Nation tracks outdoor mailbox thefts in North Texas

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

# # #

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

Dave Lieber book that won two national awards for social change.

Watchdog Nation Exposes Mailbox Bandits’ Crime Spree

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service was not going to share the information. But we got it anyway!

When we first learned that several blue collection mailboxes outside post offices had been broken into, the feds wouldn’t give us further details. Read the initial Watchdog Nation report from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram here.


This is a Dave Lieber column for the Star-Telegram and Watchdog Nation about thefts from mailboxes and the secrecy behind them.

Don't use these mailboxes anymore. Mail gets stolen from them, and authorities might not tell you.


But Watchdog Nation believes the public has a right to know. If you mail a bill and the mail is stolen, don’t you have a right to know that? The Postal Inspection Service said no because releasing that information would jeopardize its criminal investigation.

We didn’t settle for that. We filed a U.S. Freedom of Information Act request for the details. Good news! The letter arrived and we shared the information in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Here’s the report:

It took me three months to learn how many outdoor blue mail collection boxes in our area have been broken into by bandits who are still at large.

In January, we reported on mailbox break-ins outside several post offices, including in Haltom City, Keller, Bedford, Crowley and Fort Worth. Some were reported by readers and some were verified by police reports, but post office officials were tight-lipped.

At first, North Texas representatives of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service shut down my request for more information, saying that releasing when and where the mailbox thefts occurred could hurt their criminal investigations.

I filed a Freedom of Information Act request. The results are in.

More than 60 collection boxes in Tarrant County and nearby cities were broken into between January 2009 and Feb. 6, 2010, the date of my request.

Area Postal Inspection Service spokeswoman Amanda McMurrey, who originally denied my request for the information, declined to comment on the details, which came from the postal inspectors’ national headquarters in Arlington, Va.

If you’ve wondered about stolen mail from an outdoor collection mailbox, check the government’s newly released list of the locations of mail theft, vandalism and mail tampering incidents at outdoor collection boxes, and the dates they occurred.

Aledo

1165 Camp Bowie Blvd., 76008

March 7, 2009

Arlington

1975 Ballpark Way, 76006

May 20 and Oct. 8, 2009

Lamar Boulevard and Cooper Street, 76010

Jan. 6, 2010

2309 Roberts Circle, 76010

May 20, 2009

208 Billings St., 76010

Dec. 28, 2009

711 106th St., 76011

July 11, Oct. 8 and Oct. 22, 2009

715 W. Lamar Blvd., 76012

Oct. 16, 2009

110 W. Pioneer Parkway, 76012

Oct. 22, 2009

1615 W. Abram St., 76013

Dec. 14, 2009

221 Southwest Plaza, 76016

Oct. 5, 2009

4108 SW Green Oaks Blvd., 76017

Feb. 7 and July 12, 2009

4300 Beltway Place, 76018

Jan. 4, 2010

Bedford

601 Harwood Road, 76021

Oct. 9, 2009

1300 Harwood Road, 76021

Dec. 12, 2009

Burleson

232 SW Johnson Ave., 76028

Dec. 22, 2009

Crowley

200 S. Crowley Road, 76036

Dec. 12 and Dec. 14, 2009

Euless

210 N. Ector Dr., 76039

Oct. 29, 2009, and Jan. 16, 2010

Forest Hill

6605 Forest Hill Blvd., 76140

Dec. 27, 2009

Fort Worth

400 N. Retta St., 76111

Oct. 25 and Nov. 6, 2009

550 N. Beach St., 76111

Nov. 16, 2009

1475 Handley Dr., 76112

Oct. 19, Nov. 2, Nov. 17, Nov. 27, 2009, and Jan. 15, 2010

1051 Bridgewood Dr., 76112

June 2, 2009

5300 Boca Raton Blvd., 76112

Jan. 25, 2010

1117 Burton Hill Road, 76114

Dec. 31, 2009

3020 S. Cherry Lane, 76116

March 11 and Nov. 8, 2009, and Jan. 18, 2010

6421 Camp Bowie Blvd., 76116

Nov. 9, 2009

5429 Stanley Keller Road, 76117

Oct. 26, 2009

5125 Wichita St., 76119

Nov. 30, 2009

6705 Meadow Dr. 76120

Nov. 17, 2009

Handley Post Office, 76124

Jan. 5 and Jan. 12, 2010

7101 Bryant Irvin Road, 76132

Oct. 12, 2009, and Jan. 28, 2010

4701 Alta Mesa Blvd., 76133

Oct. 17 and Dec. 22, 2009

3701 Alta Mesa Blvd., 76133

Nov. 18, 2009

6111 N. Beach St., 76137

Aug. 31, 2009

Mark IV Parkway, 76161

Oct. 27, 2009

Haltom City

5709 Broadway, 76117

Dec. 15, 2009, and Jan. 3, 2010

5700 N. Beach St., 76137

Aug. 31, 2009

Haslet

1097 Schoolhouse Road, 76052

Oct. 9, 2009

Hurst

815 Precinct Line Road, 76053

Jan. 14, 2010

Keller

520 E. Vine St., 76248

Dec. 19, 2009

North Richland Hills

6051 Davis Blvd., 76180

Nov. 23, Nov. 26 and Dec. 9, 2009

Sanger

1008 N. Fifth St., 76266

Oct. 22, 2009

Watauga

6651 Watauga Road, 76148

Jan. 19, 2010