I.R. Walter, President of the IFSDA, penned a letter that was featured in the September 2011 issue of the German Postal Specialist regarding the theft of registered mail coming from Germany.
An investigation was launched following the loss of a rare Swiss stamps in registered mail inbound to the US. The investigation has initially implicated a single postal worked in the International Mail Center at JFK who was removing whole bags of registered mail, sorting through them for cash, and discarding the rest. He was caught red-handed with over 400 items. International mail from the UK, Germany, and Switzerland appear to have specifically been at risk. The issue was raised with the UPU, but they deferred to the USPS. No word on what they're going to do, but probably nothing in light of their budget cutbacks.
I've suffered from this as well. I've lost several items of thankfully low value that made if to JFK, and no further. The problem is that the mail is handled using secure procedures from the sender to JFK, and from the local PO to the addressee, but not from JFK to the local PO. I find it hard to believe one person is responsible, since I know from several of my German dealers that the problem is widespread.
Guess I'll just avoid the problem by buying stamps expensive enough to warrant FedEx, etc.
Posted 09/04/2011 11:18 pm
