AUSTIN, Texas — Mail theft is plaguing communities across the country and right here in Central Texas.
The KVUE Defenders have been investigating Austin-area mail thefts for months. The problem leads to identity theft and financial crimes, but as the Defenders have uncovered, mail thieves aren’t always prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Millions of mailbox keys used by postal carriers have frequently turned up missing or stolen.
In 2020, postal police were stripped of their authority to investigate mail thefts, which could be why there has been such a surge in mail thefts in Central Texas.
“Honestly, they're just popping it open and then just taking what they want," said Anthony Rivera-Straine, whose neighborhood has been hit repeatedly by mail thieves.
Mail theft is a problem taking the nation by storm, and Texas has proven to be no exception.
Rivera-Straine said thieves have frequently targeted the Parker Station Neighborhood in northeast Austin where he lives.
“There was a week period or two week period where it was like, honestly, it seemed like every other day somebody was complaining about it," Rivera-Straine said.
He said he and his neighbors have had sensitive personal documents and other items stolen.
"Credit card statements, that sort of thing. Some people are running their businesses out of their homes, so they're looking for some of that kind of official mail coming in," Rivera-Straine said.
Even U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Austin) has been a victim.
“I got a complaint that the bill hadn't been paid. And I looked at my bank statement and a bill, a check had cleared for the same amount. And then I looked at the check that had cleared, and someone had gotten the check," Doggett said.
Doggett doesn’t think the postal service is working fast enough to solve the problem, saying he feels they move like "snail mail."
A bigger issue is stolen and copied arrow keys. In most cases, an arrow key can grant a thief access into any mailbox. Postal carriers are being targeted and assaulted by thieves looking for these special keys.
In multiple audits, most recently in September 2023, the Office of Inspector General estimated the number of keys lost or stolen from the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) was somewhere in the millions nationwide.
The audit also found that the USPS lacks accountability over tabs that should be kept on the keys.
“Letter carriers are being robbed, having guns stuck in their face. It's a disaster, to be honest with you. I mean, this has just progressively gotten worse and worse," said Frank Albergo, the president of the Postal Police Officer Association.
In the past, postal police would work alongside carriers as another layer of protection and, if needed, would investigate mailbox thefts. But that recently changed.
“In the summer of 2020, the Postal Service, in its infinite wisdom, decided that postal police officers should no longer be protecting the mail. We should be protecting postal facilities," Albergo said.
The change meant that postal police have been pulled off the streets and routes that mail carriers drive.
“The Inspection Service has us protecting buildings, not the mail and not postal employees who are increasingly being attacked," Albergo said. “I mean, most law enforcement agencies would be deploying their uniformed police officers to stop the crime. But the Inspection Service has done the exact opposite. It's amazing.”
“Given the lack of statutory authority for PPO [Postal Police Officer] law enforcement activity off postal premises, curtailing such use of PPOs was necessary to protect individual PPOs and the Postal Service more broadly from legal liability,” USPS said in a statement.
Doggett said he and a group of federal lawmakers filed the bipartisan Postal Police Reform Act to finally fix the problem.
“They cannot do that under the order of the postmaster general. And so, some of us have introduced legislation to override that order and broaden or restore the power the postal police had once in the past," Doggett said.
For now, the bill has only been introduced in committee and still needs to make its way through both the U.S. House and Senate.
Meanwhile, neighbors say they feel as though they have to take matters into their own hands.
“Some people have even gone out of their way to look up like security measures or, like, there is some sort of, like, cage system that kind of sits on top of it, of the mailboxes and stuff like that," Rivera-Straine said. “We have actually heard from them that they are looking at replacing some of the systems within the Austin, greater Austin area. But, you know, it hasn't happened yet.”
And as each day goes by, more and more neighbors are being victimized.