The check is in the mail...until it isn't. Residents from downtown Bethesda, Edgemoor and Chevy Chase who have mailed checks in USPS mailboxes are reporting on neighborhood message boards (and to the appropriate authorities) that some of those checks are being stolen. Criminals have altered the checks, and then cashed them, they say.
The iconic blue mailboxes are designed to make it nearly impossible to fish letters out of them via normal means. That's led some to ask if the increasing theft from boxes in Edgemoor, Battery Lane and even in front of the Post Office at 6900 Wisconsin Avenue could be an "inside job."
According to investigations in the Philadelphia area following a string of similar thefts there, the answer could be, "yes," or, "sort of." USPS "arrow keys" are master skeleton keys that can open all mailboxes in a specific area, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported yesterday.
The USPS Inspector General issued a report that warned that once-tight oversight of access to these keys has deteriorated in recent years, the Inquirer discovered. In Philadelphia, for example, a post office employee stole one of the arrow keys and gave it to her boyfriend. The boyfriend then went on a mail-stealing spree using the key. In Westchester, NY, arrow keys have been sold to thieves. Other times, mail carriers have been robbed of their keys.
The arrow key explanation could account for the disappearing checks across the downtown Bethesda area. Investigators also recount that in some past cases, thieves have placed a glue trap on the end of a string and "fished" for envelopes through the mailbox flap. But the USPS has made the opening even smaller in response to those incidents, the Inquirer reported.
This what a failed state looks like.
ReplyDeleteI always deposit envelopes containing checks in the slot inside the Bethesda USPO location, but if stealing mail from the outdoor mailboxes is an 'inside job,' it is not clear this would be more secure and reliable. Also, it seems to me it would be difficult to alter checks and cash them, so that is another part of the puzzle. I had the experiencing of having a birthday card with an enclosed check that was addressed to a Berkeley, CA (of course) resident being stolen, but the check wasn't cashed. A Berkeley resident found the check in the gutter on some street in Berkeley, and was kind enough to mail it to my Bethesda home address with a letter of explanation. I've also had blank checks stolen as a result of mugging being cashed (also happened in Berkeley, naturally, with checks cashed in Oakland), but I assume cashing blank checks is much easier.
ReplyDeleteUsing a blue box to mail a personal check? Is it 1972?
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