For the second time in three weeks, a United States Postal Service mail carrier in our area has been robbed at gunpoint. Montgomery County police responded to a report of an armed robbery in the 4600 block of Chase Avenue in Bethesda at 12:13 PM yesterday afternoon, according to crime data. WJLA-7 News reports that the victim was a mail carrier, and that property was taken by the robber.
Police have not specified what the property was. In the Friendship Heights armed robbery on May 25, the gunman took the mail carrier's arrow key. That is a master key that opens all of the mailboxes in a particular area, which has allowed thieves to steal checks from mail and alter the payable-to and check amount to redirect funds to themselves. Robbery of these keys from mail carriers, and black market selling of the keys by corrupt USPS employees in some cases, is becoming an increasingly-common crime in many states.
Here in Bethesda, the problem of theft from mailboxes has been a significant issue since at least early 2021. No serious effort has been made by USPS to deter the thefts, or to identify the thieves using cameras. One of the targeted mailboxes from the beginning has been right in front of the USPS' own post office at 6900 Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Bethesda.
