Don't use outside mail boxes even in the burbs (Pittsburgh: fit in, crime rates)

[gg]

I am on several different groups and I can say this. The mailboxes outdoors aren't safe anymore as the keys are all over the place. I know even my local post office was hit. I also know many in East Liberty areas have been hit. Don't turn this into a crime thread or anything other than, just don't use outdoor mail boxes anymore. There are way more stories than just this link. I only post this so you don't do taxes or important things using some outside mailbox. I hope this is okay to post. If not just delete or maybe don't allow replies. I hope the US mail just gets rid of outdoor boxes or they allow the US Mail Police to do their job. They have been stripped of patrolling for some reason. It used to be mail carriers were safe from harm. Not anymore.

https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/post...DPUZ4ZJJCGYFE/

[Hemlock140]

Our city is one of the lowest crime rates of any, and our biggest crimes are mail theft and porch pirates. With so many Amazon employees in the area their trucks are delivering all day long.

We have had ours swiped once, and they got a small package containing a $4 tool I had ordered from Amazon along with some junk mail. I know because we get a daily report from USPS of what they are delivering that day. Since then I have installed a remote wireless sensor on the mailbox door. When the mail arrives, there is a loud doorbell-like sound and we go get it right away. One morning last winter I was up and having coffee at 5am when it went off, I ran to the door and watched a car drive off down the street. The tire tracks in the fresh snow showed that the guy had driven onto the wrongs side of the road several times on our block checking mail boxes. Our mail has not been stolen since. If we are going to be away for a day or two we will put a vacation hold on it. All of our bills are paid online with paper-free billing, most of what we get in the mail is junk, but we do get small packages that fit in the box sometimes.

As for the porch packages, we normally get an alert on the iPhone with a picture of it on the porch.

[North Beach Person]

I've always gone inside the Post Office to drop letters. We don't have home delivery but PO boxes so I'm picking up mail anyway. I always avoided the outside mailbox because the drunks would throw up into it.

[Igor Blevin]

What a world we are living in since they broke the world over Covid.

What did we gain by destroying the economy, doubling homelessness, and enabling criminals?

FWIW, there is a reason that the US Postal Service was the first US agency to adopt the Thompson submachine gun as a service weapon back during the Great Depression. Gangsters were knocking over the mail for money back then too.

[szug-bot]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

I've always gone inside the Post Office to drop letters. We don't have home delivery but PO boxes so I'm picking up mail anyway. I always avoided the outside mailbox because the drunks would throw up into it.

oh absolutely. i ceased even being cognizant (if that is the correct definition ) of public mail boxes just because they were broken - letters would not drop in, for some reason, and instead seemed to be stuck somehow (bloomfield, Fisk Street, for example).

that and the number of variables that would potentially sabotage delivery. i remember i think way back in the 90s, a news item about a mail carrier who was overwhelmed and just tossed the big duffel bag of mail over a hill side. that stuck with me, and so ive been a 'walk in-er' for a long long time by my own choice.

[Taiko]

Originally Posted by gg

I am on several different groups and I can say this. The mailboxes outdoors aren't safe anymore as the keys are all over the place. I know even my local post office was hit. I also know many in East Liberty areas have been hit. Don't turn this into a crime thread or anything other than, just don't use outdoor mail boxes anymore. There are way more stories than just this link. I only post this so you don't do taxes or important things using some outside mailbox. I hope this is okay to post. If not just delete or maybe don't allow replies. I hope the US mail just gets rid of outdoor boxes or they allow the US Mail Police to do their job. They have been stripped of patrolling for some reason. It used to be mail carriers were safe from harm. Not anymore.

https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/post...DPUZ4ZJJCGYFE/

Before 2020 did you see white Ford Crown Victorias "patrolling" everywhere the postal service has a carrier and blue collection box because the carrier force is actually everywhere?

Because there are only 350 Postal Police Officers nationwide as their primary job is to make sure clerks don't bring guns into the large processing plants and "go postal". How many of them are supposed to "patrol" all of that district ignoring other crimes as they burn fuel as every box and carrier is a potential victim 24/7? And while the few and the proud are out on their patrols then who is doing the job that they were hired to do?

You are just reading the comments of the Postal Police Union head, since he was the only person willing and/or allowed to talk to the press. And he is fighting to get his members the Federal law enforcement pension plan like a FBI or Border patrol Agent instead of being in the regular FERS pension that all other federal employees and security guards get.

Mail carriers were never safe from crime, fewer government checks mails on a set schedule just saw a temporary drop in thefts so Postal Inspectors (the actual Federal Agents with the law enforcement pension) and local police task forces have pretty much stop their 1st, 3rd, and 15th of the month strike teams on standby. But now with more media coverage, like I in Los Angeles just picked up on this story from Pittsburgh many more thieves know that the carriers keys to be used as burglary tools and not the government checks to be washed are the primary target. And since the carrier is everywhere only the local police can handle that not a personal postal police security guard following him and ignoring other crimes because he didn't sign up to handle family and neighborhood disputes.

[Reggiezz]

Who gets checks in the mail these days? The only mail items that come to me are advertising flyers, which go straight into the trash. I don't appreciate them delivering trash, but they won't stop. So if someone wants to steal my trash, ok. If they asked, I might pay them to regularly take my mail.

[Taiko]

Originally Posted by Reggiezz

Who gets checks in the mail these days? The only mail items that come to me are advertising flyers, which go straight into the trash. I don't appreciate them delivering trash, but they won't stop. So if someone wants to steal my trash, ok. If they asked, I might pay them to regularly take my mail.

Hence the carrier and his keys to get inside of your building is the bigger target today than the mail which identity thieves use to defraud others when more carriers by far, at least in my district were robbed to get government checks 25 years ago than now with more cameras capturing the robbery thus TV news coverage.

[gg]

Originally Posted by Reggiezz

Who gets checks in the mail these days?

Poorer people and those that don't trust the WWW. Doesn't matter what YOU do or any individuals are doing. There are over 300,000,000 people in our country they might do something different. I don't have much going on in the mail, but sometimes I do. Everyone does. Tax stuff or whatever. If you can't trust the mail anymore due to this certain privileged group, then....well whatever. I'll just keep changing my life accordingly to lowering the bar due to the usual leadership. I'll do a P.O. Box. Done.

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by Reggiezz

Who gets checks in the mail these days? The only mail items that come to me are advertising flyers, which go straight into the trash. I don't appreciate them delivering trash, but they won't stop. So if someone wants to steal my trash, ok. If they asked, I might pay them to regularly take my mail.

I did last week. From the bank. It was refund for my escrow account overpayment. Then there are state tax refunds. Yes, they can be electronically transferred for a $20 "convenience fee" (that's Maryland).