If 2011 is any indication, 2012 will be worst year for the post office

For years, Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation has studied and reported about the U.S. Postal Service.

But this post is not based on reporting. Rather, it’s based on anecdotal evidence. Watchdog Nation has had some terrible experiences with USPS in 2011. As the post office struggles with multi-billion dollar deficits, the threatened closure of more than a thousand postal stations and the possible shutdown of Saturday mail delivery, it’s safe to say that Ben Franklin’s pet project is going to hell.

Example #1

A friend mailed us an Olympus recording device. But when it arrived, there was a thumb drive inside instead. Watchdog Nation complained to the postal service but there was nothing that could be done.

Stolen by a postal employee? Most likely.

Our theory: a postal employee thought it was a lavish electronic device (by feeling the envelope) and opened it. The employee stuffed something else inside and the package went on its merry way. (By the way, we tracked the thumb drive’s owner down at an area church and sent it along — something USPS wasn’t able to do.)

Example #2

Watchdog Nation could kill ourselves for our own stupidity on this one. We know better. We mailed an important check via Priority Mail three days before it was due. But it didn’t arrive in time, and now we face a $53 late charge. Yes, we definitely know better. USPS promises that Priority Mail Delivery will be delivered “within 2 days in most cases.” WITHIN MOST CASES. The fine print. Jeez.

 Example #3

Look at this Christmas card we received. Need we say more?

Example #4

Ditto for this envelope that was sent to us. It was perfectly addressed, but it was sent back with “Return to Sender/Not Deliverable As Addressed/Unable to Forward.”

Yet there wasn’t a single mistake on the address.

We complained to the postal service and received this answer:

“We apologize for not responding sooner. 

 “We were attempting to determine where the problem occurred which is why I asked for the original envelope.  It was our thought that the mailpiece did not even get to Keller, but was returned from one of the plants that processed it.

 “However, the part of the envelope that you provided didn’t have the barcode where we could check which machine it ran on.  I thought I provided that information to you at that time, but evidently I did not.

 “In the interim, we did speak to all the employees that distribute mail to the PO Boxes in Keller to reinforce proper processing of all PO Box mail in the event that the mishandling did occur in Keller.

 “We do apologize for the mishandling of the mailpiece and any inconvenience that was caused as a result.

 “Thanks. Manager, Consumer & Industry Contact”

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And thanks to you. 2012 is going to be a hellish year for the USPS.

And such a shame because in recent years, things seemed to be getting better, not worse.

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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,

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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

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