Home mailbox unsafe as mail theft increases
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
The U.S. Postal Inspector Service is advising Hawai'i residents that it is no longer safe to place outgoing mail for carrier pickup in home mailboxes because of an increase in thefts.
Common-sense guidelines to avoid becoming a victim of mail theft: • Deposit all mail, especially those containing checks and personal information, directly at the post office or into the nearest collection box. • If you are unable to get to the post office, give the mail directly to your carrier. • Collect mail from your mailbox as soon as you can. The longer your mail stays in the box, the more opportunities for theft. • If you do not receive the mail that you were expecting, contact the sender to make sure it was sent. If it was, and you believe it may have been stolen rather than just delayed, report the incident to your local post office. • To guard against identity theft and credit-card fraud, reconcile your bank and credit-card accounts monthly. • Notify the police if you see anyone tampering with collection or mailboxes. The only people authorized to access mail receptacles are postal employees and the residents associated with the mailbox.
"The home mailbox is the most unsecured place you can leave outgoing mail," said Postal Inspector Kathryn M. Derwey.
Tips for protecting your mail
From October 2001 to May 2002, residents in the service's Northern California Division, which includes Hawai'i, filed 64,723 reports of stolen mail, a 35 percent increase in the number of reports compared with 47,634 during the same period of the previous year. The division includes Northern California, Guam, Saipan, Rota and American Samoa.
While a report compiled by the service did not include separate statistics on overall mail theft in Hawai'i, 2,330 residents here reported they did not receive credit cards they had been sent through the mail — a 3.8 percent increase over the 2,245 reports during the same period of the previous year, the service said.
Police in Honolulu have been attending neighborhood board meetings warning residents not to send mail from their homes and to pick up incoming mail as quickly as possible.
The postal inspector is responsible for investigating mail thefts and last year arrested more than 5,000 theft suspects nationwide.
Thieves will steal any mail but especially look for outgoing mail because they know residents often send checks from their homes to pay bills, Derwey said.
"Checks are in there, and thieves are taking those checks, altering them and cashing them," Derwey said. "Or, making counterfeit checks because they have your account number and make up fake IDs. It is very lucrative for the thieves to get the outgoing mail, much more so than getting the incoming mail."
Honolulu Police Department Detective Letha DeCaires said 10 people were arrested on O'ahu since February in connection with mail theft and, if convicted, they face five years in federal prison and a fine for each piece of mail stolen. DeCaires said the thieves often work in teams and are targeting almost every neighborhood and all islands.
"Just last week they were in Manoa," DeCaires said. "These people follow postal workers and watch the time they put mail in. This is their career."
Derwey said residents who see anyone other than a letter carrier tampering with a mailbox should not approach them but get a car license number if possible and report it to police.
"That has been the most effective tool so far," Derwey said. "So people can protect their personal information, we advice them to use collection boxes or hand it directly to a letter carrier, or take it to their business and mail it there."
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
CORRECTION: Ten people were arrested in connection with mail theft on O'ahu since February. An earlier version of this story had other information.
