(Click on the image for Jodie Fleischer's News4 report)
- In many cases, inspectors acknowledge, thieves are accessing mail in blue boxes using stolen “arrow keys” — a type of universal key used by mail carriers and collectors that can unlock several blue mailboxes, apartment panels or parcel lockers in any given area. It’s illegal for anyone but a postal worker to possess them.
- An August audit by the Office of Inspector General for the United States Postal Service criticized the agency’s management of the keys as “ineffective,” noting, “The number of arrow keys in circulation is unknown, and local units did not adequately report lost, stolen, or broken keys or maintain key inventories.”
- Report mail theft on the U.S. Postal Inspection Service website.