Memo to: Guy Cottrell

U.S. Chief Postal Inspector

From: Watchdog Nation

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.

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

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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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