USPS takes action after string of mail thefts with master keys

CHARLOTTE — A group of thieves cleaned out an entire row of mailboxes using just one key, but now the United States Postal Service is taking action to fight back and protect your mail.

Channel 9′s Eli Brand spoke with USPS’ inspectors who have been battling the thefts and scams that put millions in North Carolina at risk.

“While people are sleeping, they are coming into our main lobby,” said Terrie Donovan, a mail theft victim.

Donovan lives at and serves on the board of the Tranquil Court Condos in Myers Park. She shared a video from back in 2023 showing people entering her building and stealing everything in sight. She says they got all that access by stealing a master key from a postal worker.

“I mean people couldn’t sleep, we had people who had a lot of issues sleeping after that. People’s doors are right here, so people took extra security precautions,” Donovan told Brand.

One of those precautions was taken by the owners of the building. They removed the blue postal lock box from their entrance, which is what grants access to anyone with a master key. Donovan said since then, no thieves have returned.

USPS is also targeting that vulnerability.

“The US Postal Service is making enhances to their boxes, their blue boxes,” said Jessica Adams with the US Postal Inspection Service.

Wednesday, the service laid out the actions they’ve been taking since 2023 to combat mail thefts and scams, including enhancing blue boxes to not work with stolen master keys.

They say letter carrier robberies are down 27% over the last two years, and around 2,400 mail theft and letter carrier robbery arrests have been made nationwide.

Postal service officials say they’re unsure exactly how many blue lockboxes need to be replaced.

They’re also warning about common scams, including text messages saying a package being sent to your address is undeliverable. The message will ask you to click a link, but officials say you shouldn’t do that. No messages from USPS will ever include a link.

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