Nationwide, there were about 153,000 collection boxes at the end of fiscal year (FY) 2016 however, the U.S. What many Americans don’t realize is that the USPS has been removing or relocating mailboxes for over the past eight years.Īccording to a report by the post service’s Inspector General (IG) back in 2017: This uproar comes at a time when Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called back to Washington a recessed House of Representatives to negotiate a deal on USPS funding. A photo is circulating the web but it dates back to 2016.) Users are linking the mailbox removals to voter suppression ahead of the 2020 election cycle. Pictures of mailboxes loaded onto flatbed trucks in Portland, Manhattan, and other areas have populated social media recently sparking outrage. Removing low-usage mailboxes or clustering mailboxes in high-traffic areas such as shopping centers are common-sense ways to boost efficiency and save money. USPS is in dire need of reforms to stay afloat. USPS mailboxes in many areas have simply outlived their usefulness making the remaining boxes even more costly to maintain. There has been a significant decline in mail volume as fewer Americans send letters and cards or utilize alternative delivery services for packages. The removal of mailboxes is not widespread, it did not start recently, and it is not an attempt at voter suppression ahead of the 2020 election cycle. To report suspicious behavior directly to the Postal Service, call 1-87.United States Postal Service mailboxes are disappearing from street corners. That way your mail is going out that day and your mail is not sitting in the box on the weekend,” said Harris. “You can put mail in before the last collection time. But there are ways of minimizing the risk of theft even when using one of the old mailboxes. Postal officials say the only full-proof way of ensuring mail doesn’t end up in the wrong hands is to drop of letters and packages at the post office. "I had to instruct a man about the proper way to get the letter into the new mailbox," said one man at the post office in Maspeth, Queens. ![]() The change appears to be confusing some customers. ![]() The redesign makes it more difficult for criminals to go mail fishing - but it also makes it impossible to use the boxes to mail packages or fat envelopes. The most visible change - the wide mail chute that opens with a pull-down handle has been replaced by a narrow slot. "At first we were retrofitting the current boxes that were out there but then we realized we needed to have a solution to this problem that would be a permanent solution," said Harris. Mailbox fishing began in the Bronx about three years ago and then spread to other boroughs as law enforcement tried to crack down. "They can take that check out of the mailbox and then they can do something called check washing where they take all the information you have on the check and erase it and they can put their own information on and cash it," said Corey. The goal is to find checks that crooks can forge by replacing the payee's name with their own. Corey, the Commanding Officer of the NYPD’s Crime Prevention Division. "They take a string and a bottle they can take a glue trap, a mouse trap, a rat trap and they drop it in and pull mail out of the mailbox," said Deputy Inspector Jessica E. ![]() ![]() The replacement plan is the result of a wave of thefts caused by "mailbox fishing." Eventually, all of the more than 5,000 old public mailboxes in the city will be replaced. The Postal Service already has begun installing the new mailboxes across the five boroughs In Queens, 40 percent of the street boxes are new. You will have the new, high security mailboxes, the Cadillac of mailboxes," says Donna Harris of the U.S. "The plan is to replace all the boxes across the city, all five boroughs. The new models have the same deep blue color and distinctive shape - but they have been redesigned to thwart thieves. The venerable corner mailbox is changing.
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