USPS Workers Steal Thousands Of Dollars In Checks

Probably the most disturbing part of the story:




https://www.foxnews.com/politics/st...20000-stolen

*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***

Ah, poor Elise.

GeoffHa - do you have some substantive comment to make on the alleged theft which is relevant to the forum since it occurred within the USPS, and is of concern to those of us in the U.S. that utilize their services or are you just interested in making another mindless political comment? Sigh.

I think part of it is the change of time and a new type of postal worker. When I was a kid our mailman (ok to call them that back then) was a WW2 vet who lived through mail call being the only way to talk to his mom and wife back home. He knew everyone by name. and if us kids were messing around by the mail box he knew our names too and told us no to play with that and we did not.

Over time they changed to a Vietnam vet who still talked to back home by mail call. Then it was our first woman mailman and yes that is what she wanted to be called. But you knew she liked mail and would announce there is a letter from your daughter today to my mom.

as time went on I think we have moved to a generation who may have never gotten anything in their own mail but bills. I see my postal worker now or should I say workers because it is lots of different ones I am an address to them and they are a 1 min recording on my ring camera as I catch a bit of their cell phone talk. I think for many of them it is just a job and lets face it not the most easy or pleasant job at times. Mail is just a product when before it was important personally to the carrier.

This doesn't surprise me at all. I've lost dozens of stamp shipments worth thousands of dollars to the USPS.

Sending anything via Registered Mail paints a large "steal me" on it.

A couple of observations.

There are fewer mail shipments these days of financial instruments than in the past given the ease of electronically transferring funds as well as having plastic to pay for things. And yet it seems as if theft of financial instruments is up substantially, and the USPS seems to be unable to effectively deal with these crimes.

A few things are supposed to act as deterrents to crime. Fear of being caught, punishment, public shame and losing one's job are among those things. I can only conclude that there is a perception and perhaps a reality that there will be no punishment to speak of and thus the fear of being caught is lessened. Public shame is probably a non-starter anymore for many judging by how many people comport themselves now. There might also be a bit of delusion in that who the victim is (their beliefs) means that there are different rules, that hurting them is somehow OK or less distasteful. That is very sad. This is most definitely not a political story; it is a crime story. It is about a legacy institution losing its credibility. The victim's ideology should be immaterial to what is taking place. I feel sorry for those broken people that see crime through a certain lens (some see everything that way). They need help or at least to search deep within themselves to try and figure out what happened to themselves.

Another observation comes from past work in the construction industry redeveloping old and historic postal facilities. They were by design secure facilities. They of course did not have the security technology that we have now when they were designed and constructed but they did have robust security features. One such feature was galleries with catwalks inside and one-way glass that wound throughout every area of the facilities including the employee restrooms. (That would never fly today) The idea was not that there was always someone watching but rather that there COULD be someone watching. I suppose the same principle applies to CCTV cameras now, but the affect is obviously not the same if there are indeed those systems, since the thieves are not deterred. These are not retail thefts where the perpetrators are wearing masks and being filmed and could care less. The USPS employees should be unadorned with face masks I would hope and think. Or perhaps the criminals just know that there is nobody watching them.

Fentanyl mail shipments large and mostly small as well as counterfeit stamps from China are other big crime issues that the USPS is dealing with and does not seem to be gaining on. So, what are they focused on that is diverting resources from theft, drugs and counterfeits? Or is the magnitude simply overwhelming.

It is a serious topic for collectors given that the lion's share of our transactions involves shipping/taking delivery of our precious goods though the very institutions that brought us philately in the first place. A very disturbing turn of events.

The theft of cash and gift cards at the USPS Recovery Center in Atlanta is also in the millions of dollars annually. This is the old 'dead letter office' which are supposed to disposition unclaimed mail items but the last audit (which I believe was 2017) by the GAO reveal massive theft and fraud. Targeting these kinds of mailed items (donations to certain addresses, mail items which 'feel' like they have gift cards) is by-passed and a 'no brainer' when part of the job is to open the mail for deposition.
Don

Sadly I think this is right, though I do know there are still conscientious and hard working individuals out there. Growing up my dad was an RFD Carrier and working for the post office in our town was considered a big deal.

And yes, the mailbox was sacrosanct. I had a paper route and made the mistake of putting the papers in the box one winter day only to have dad tell me I'd broken the law!

40 years ago people were saying this, and to never send philatelic mail that way. That's why FEDEX and UPS are how most philatelic items get sent.

From what I read; this was the case almost as soon as USPOD registered mail service was originally started back in the 1800s.
Don

USPS is a very large organization. There is going to be some thefts. Not saying it is acceptable, but there are employee thefts at Walmart and UPS etc. too. Question is whether it is a bigger problem with the USPS.

As I see it the difference between USPS and UPS/FedEx is that the USPS has a monopoly and no shareholders to appease or share value to worry about. As for the for-profit companies, internal theft would obviously not be in their best interests if they wanted to stay in business and be seen as a desirable investment.

PS: I used to collect firearms and UPS was the ONLY way that myself and others shipped them. Tells you everything.

The USPS has too many stakeholders - Congress.

Yep, mail theft was the airliner crashes of the 1800s and thereafter. Read "Ten Years Among the Mailbags" https://www.amazon.com/Ten-Years-Am...p/0548995613. 'The Postmaster's Assistant" covers many "depurations" from the mails between 1860 and 1872 and beyond.

So, I will add this current experience to the topic. Somebody sent me a check three weeks ago from NY to MA. It never arrived. Bills, junk mail, magazines, financial statements etc. all arrived. A shipment from China and one from CA arrived within one week. But the check with an associated spread sheet never arrived and the sender ended up having to place a stop-payment on the missing check and FedEx it. Yes, there are many possibilities as to what happened to the check, but I am increasingly distrustful of the postal service. A sad commentary on a once rock-solid institution. I guess that EVERYTHING needs a tracking number now.