Watch for mail theft
By: John Bispala 03/01/2006
I was busy in another room when I heard the mail delivery. In about five minutes I was able to go and check the mail. There was a US Postal Service notice indicating a package was left between the front doors, but nothing was there. Since the mail vehicle was still parked across the street, I went out to meet the mail carrier, who claimed she had just placed a package between my doors, so I asked her to come and look. When she saw no package there, she said, “Oh, my gosh!” and wrote a report to the Post Office.
What could we do? Some thief must have been following the mail carrier or watching closely and grabbed my package very stealthily. I’ve suspected that’s happened a couple times before. My wife and I called the mail order businesses from whom we expected packages, but we had to wait a certain number of days to see which orders might still arrive and what was missing.
I first called 911, but since I didn’t see a suspect, the 911 dispatcher referred me to the new 311 service of the Minneapolis Police Department. Again, I didn’t have enough information to file a report because exactly what was stolen and its value was yet unknown. As a last resort, I called the 800 number of the US Postal Service, and they gave me a reference number for this incident and said to call back when I find out what was stolen. A short time later, a supervisor from the Penn-Lowry Post Office called me, and we agreed not to have packages left at my door. To not have packages left unattended is one option the resident can request from the USPS. The Post Office also admitted that I’m not the only resident in the Camden area who has experienced a rise in mail theft. But think about it. What if you order your prescription medications by mail?
John Bispala
Webber-Camden