One day last month, a local resident showed up at the Town Crier offices with two torn envelopes found in a downtown Los Altos parking lot. The envelopes had contained bills she had dropped off at the drive-through mailboxes on First Street.
According to police, suspects used an empty postal box to obstruct the mailbox opening, then later returned to retrieve mail from inside.
Suspects then take checks and “wash” them, writing in new names and dollar amounts.
Mailbox theft has been an ongoing, nationwide problem for years, with no signs of abating – despite efforts by the United States Postal Service to upgrade security measures. As of last week, the suspect remained unidentified and at large.
“Detectives have met with USPS personnel to coordinate public outreach and emphasize the risks of depositing valuable items – such as checks or cash – into unsecured blue mail drop-off boxes,” said Los Altos Police Chief Saskia Logergren. “Warning signs have been posted on the mailboxes and the Los Altos Police Department has shared advisories through its social media channels.”
Postal spokesperson Kristina Uppal said she was not aware of recent thefts in the area. But she said the postal service has been working with its enforcement arm, the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) under something called Project Safe Delivery. The campaign was launched in May 2023 in response to rising postal crime nationwide.
“The goal of that initiative is to prevent incidents through education and awareness and enforce the laws that protect our nation’s mailstream,” Uppal offered in an official statement.
She offered no further comment other than general tips for preventing mail theft: Don’t let mail sit in your mailbox; mail at secure locations, such as inside the post office; and combat theft through “neighborhood watches.”
Uppal said newly installed mailboxes “do include many features to deter theft,” but did not say what those were.
Mail theft victims often find themselves in a kind of jurisdictional purgatory, as local resident Rosemarie Nahm found out when her five-figure check was “intercepted” in the mail in September 2023 after a drive-through drop off at the post office on Miramonte Avenue.
To date, she has not received follow-up communication from either local law enforcement or USPIS.
“The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office (my law enforcement agency) referred me to Los Altos police, stating that the post office at Miramonte is in the Los Altos jurisdiction,” Nahm said. “Los Altos police referred me to USPIS, stating that all postal crime is in the USPIS jurisdiction.”
Nahm spoke with the local postmaster at the time, who referred her to submit a complaint on the USPIS website.
“They emailed me a generic response stating that they cannot follow up on all of the complaints and if I did not hear from them, then essentially to assume that they will not investigate,” Nahm said. “I never heard from them.”
Logergren noted: “We take the initial report and try to determine if there is any suspect information or any leads – then we pass the cases along to the USPS Postal Inspectors. Most of these cases go unsolved because of lack of evidence, but last year we had a few cases of theft from our mailboxes that resulted in an arrest and follow up investigation in coordination with USPS Inspectors.”
Logergren urged residents to avoid “placing sensitive or high-value items in public mailboxes, especially outside of USPS business hours.”
Uppal encouraged customers to report stolen mail by submitting an online complaint to the Postal Inspection Service at USPIS.gov/report or by calling (877) 876-2455.
“This is such a serious issue that affects all of us and based on my experience, there is no recourse for the community members,” Nahm said. “Since (her experience), I deposit all mail inside the post office only. So far, I’ve had no issues.
“The outdoor drive-by mailboxes should be eliminated or have a clear warning sign alerting customers of potential mail theft,” Nahm said.
