Mail thefts vex police, patrons

By THANE GRAUEL

An old scam is causing new headaches for people that trust the blue Postal Service collection boxes to get checks and other valuable items where they need to go.

A rash of mail thefts — in many cases using variations of the “sticky box” trick, in which two-sided tape or some other kind of adhesive is planted in collection boxes and a thief returns later to snag stuck correspondence — is spreading in northern Westchester.

The racket was common decades ago but fell out of style, the way crimes sometimes do, before making a comeback a little more than a decade ago. By 2023, thefts from the mail stream nationwide became so fashionable the Postal Service rolled out collection box “hardening” measures.

In recent weeks, thefts started to become a regular occurrence in Bedford Hills. Now reports are coming in from Katonah, Cross River and Pound Ridge. Police there have said checks have been stolen, altered and cashed (see details in the police reports on Page 2).

“It’s been going on for a few weeks now since we got our first report,” said Bedford Police Lt. Jeffrey Gulick. Since then, he said, other areas also have had thefts, including down-county.

“It’s weird some things like that come back,” he said of the recent trend. “It’s kind of like the catalytic converters, and then that faded away, then you had the pharmacy burglaries. It’s kind of in a cycle.”

“I guess it’s making its return from years back,” Gulick said. 

Having a check stolen is troubling for anyone, but particularly for older adults and others who are wary of banking online because of the ever-evolving ways scammers use to separate people from their money. 

“Anyone who reports it we’re obviously documenting the incident,” Gulick said. “Generally it seems that most people are either not out of money or are being reimbursed by their financial institution. Anyone who is in fact out of money, we will put up a case report and investigate further.”

He said victims are told to follow up with the Postal Inspection Service.

“We have our detectives actively investigating now that it’s become so rampant, not just a one-off,” he said. “We’re doing what we can on our end, and we try to identify the perpetrators to see if we can make an arrest and make this stop.”

“We are taking all necessary means as a detective division,” Gulick said. “We have multiple detectives on it.”

'Hardening' measures

The Postal Service’s measures to protect the contents of collection boxes included replacing the pull-down drop drawers with narrow, horizontal slots to slide mail into, and in higher-crime metropolitan areas replacing mechanical master-key “arrow” locks with electronic locks. The arrow lock system dates to a century ago and allows multiple boxes to be opened with a single key.

The arrow keys have frequently fallen into the hands of criminals, making opening the boxes and stealing entire plastic bins of mail fast and easy. 

All the collection boxes outside post offices in northern Westchester visited by The Recorder this week had the newer, narrow insertion slots. But all still had the troublesome arrow keys for the door to the collection bin below.

What to do

The Postal Service provides these tips for those who have lost checks in the mail:

— If your mailing involves a check that was possibly stolen, contact your bank immediately: 

— If your check never reached the intended recipient, but has not been cashed yet, consider placing a stop payment on the check and opening a new account and closing the potentially compromised account.

— If your check was stolen and fraudulently cashed, consider opening a new account and closing the compromised account to prevent future counterfeited checks from being cashed.

— If the check was stolen and fraudulently cashed, obtain front and back copies of the altered check and work with your bank to determine where the check was deposited.

— File a report with your local police department and the United States Postal Inspection Service. 

— Report the crime at https://mailtheft.uspis.gov/ or call 1-877-876-2455; 

provide the date, time and location where you mailed the check; type of mail service used ( First-Class envelope, Priority Mail, etc.); who the check was originally payable to and their contact information; the name of the financial institution where the check was fraudulently deposited; and upload a copy of the front and back of the altered check

— If you suspect a USPS employee is involved in the theft, contact the USPS Office of Inspector General at https://www.uspsoig.gov/ or 1-888-USPS-OIG (888-877-7644)

— Notify the intended recipient of the theft If the check was mailed from your home or business, review any available security footage to see if the theft was caught on camera Ask the intended recipient if they have cameras they can review as well

— Download and provide copies of any available video to the local police and the Inspection Service

Visit usps.gov for more details on how to respond to postal thefts.

Eve Marx contributed to this report.