CINCINNATI (WKRC) – An Ohio lawmaker is sick of seeing postal workers robbed and mail stolen across the state.
Senator Sherrod Brown (D) is urging leaders of the USPS to do something about the crimes.
Nicole Lutz, the postal inspector and public information officer for the Cincinnati field office tells Local 12 News there are “multiple active investigations into recent mail theft activity and robberies of postal letter carriers in the Cincinnati area.”
In 2022 alone, Local 12 has reported several cases of mail carriers being robbed, some at gunpoint, across the Tri-State.
“I’m a little shook. I had a gun shoved in my face and my keys taken from me,” said a mail carrier during a call to 911 after he was robbed in Norwood back in January.
Less than two months later, a couple from Madeira had their $118 check stolen and cashed for $11,800.
“There was a postman who works in an area around here and he was robbed, and they took his keys and that’s how [the postal workers] think [the thieves] are getting into the box,” said Robert Young, one of the victims.
In August a master key was stolen from a postal worker in Covington.
A couple months later, it happened again, when an armed thief robbed a USPS mail carrier in Green Township, stealing the mail carrier’s truck keys and blue mailbox master keys.
Sen. Brown cited a Local 12 article in a letter sent in October to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Republican, appointed under former President Donald Trump.
Brown urged DeJoy to place postal police officers back on patrol, a practice that stopped in August 2020.
”[The head of the postal service] has done major damage to the postal service,” said Sen. Brown, who says he believes this is part of the reason why mail crimes have surged across the country.
Just recently, the USPS posted a $50,000 reward as it searches for a suspect in an armed robbery of a mail carrier in Over-The-Rhine.
In his letter, Sen, Brown wrote, “Postal robberies are costing Ohioans millions in stolen checks and goods, putting the lives of mail carriers at risk and straining local police departments.”
Sen. Brown says he never heard back from DeJoy and sent a second letter, this time, addressed to the USPS Board of Governors.
“It’s time for the board to take charge,” he wrote. “I just want the postal service to be run better. I want to stop the mail theft. I still get letters from Ohioans who have lost valuable things in the mail and that’s always gonna happen occasionally, but it’s happened way too often because he [Postmaster General] upended and changed the way that we do postal policing.”
Local 12 News submitted a FOIA request for information about the number of mail crimes that have occurred in Cincinnati and parts of Northern Kentucky since 2020.
FULL STATEMENT FROM USPS CINCINNATI FIELD OFFICE:
“The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is the federal law enforcement agency with the U.S. Postal Service. We investigate criminal matters involving the U.S. Mail. Our Cincinnati Field Office currently has multiple active investigations into recent mail theft activity and robberies of postal letter carriers in the Cincinnati area. I can’t provide specific details on these investigations as they are ongoing. We encourage anyone with information related to this activity to contact the Inspection Service directly at our 24/7 Hotline 877-876-2455. Attached is a reward poster where the U.S. Postal Inspection Service is offering up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of suspect(s) who committed a robbery of a postal carrier on September 26, 2022 in Cincinnati. This investigation is still ongoing.
Postal Inspectors routinely provide education to postal employees on preventive tips to minimize victimization and protect themselves while on duty. We encourage employees to remain vigilant and be aware of their surroundings while delivering mail. If they feel they are danger or sense something suspicious, they are encouraged to get to a safe place and contact postal management and Postal Inspectors to report the issue. If a letter carrier is involved in a robbery, we encourage the carrier to remain calm, give the robbers what they are seeking, and contact 911 when safe to do so.
The U.S. Mail remains one of the most secure means of transmitting personal information. We provide these preventive tips to postal customers to minimize the risk of victimization regarding the U.S. Mail. If customers are using USPS blue collection boxes we encourage them to place their outgoing mail in the blue boxes before the last pick up time of the day. This ensures that the postal service promptly picks up the same day. The pickup times are labeled on the blue boxes. Also, customers are encouraged to go inside any postal facility and hand their outgoing mail over the counter to the postal clerk or deposit into a mail receptacle inside the facility. There are many post offices with 24-hour lobby access. Customers can find lobby hours on our website: https://tools.usps.com/find-location.”