Protecting Community Mailboxes
Many newer neighborhoods use community mailboxes instead of each home having theirs onsite. Apartment complexes also rely on this setup for mail delivery for their residents. While this makes it easier for the mail carrier to deliver, it also opens up the possibility of theft on a wider scale. A recent video has been circulating of thieves emptying boxes in a mailroom at an apartment complex in Katy, TX. Earlier this year, community mailboxes in California were unbolted and the whole unit was stolen. Protecting community mailboxes is definitely a big concern.
Postal workers use a master key, or arrow key, to access community mailboxes for mail delivery. These keys are marked so that they cannot be copied, but counterfeit keys still exist and are being used by mail thieves. There has also been an increase in mail carriers being robbed while on their routes. These robbers approach them under threat and steal the arrow keys. With keys in the wrong hands, communities are seeing their boxes targeted multiple times, sometimes just days apart.
Project Safe Delivery
The USPS launched “Project Safe Delivery” in 2023 to implement a number of protections for the mail and its carriers. Protecting community mailboxes is a big part of this effort. Included in this is the replacement of 49,000 outdated arrow key systems with electronic locks.
Protecting your Mail
Apartment complexes and homeowners associations can do their part by installing cameras to watch the mailboxes. Video monitoring of these cameras can help to catch these thieves in the act. For indoor mailrooms, access control on the door leading to the mailboxes is a further deterrent.
A number of tips from this article on mail theft are relevant for protecting community mailboxes as well. Specifically:
- Be aware. Sign up for informed delivery with the USPS. They send you an email with an image of the mail on its way to you. That way if you don’t receive something, you know right away to report it.
- Check your mail often. Don’t let mail sit in your mailbox for extended periods. When you go out of town, either have the mail held or have a neighbor bring it in for you. If your box is targeted, the fewer items in there the better.
- Get credit alerts. Sign up to get notified anytime a credit application is made in your name. This way you will know if someone is trying to use your identity to open new accounts.
- Be suspicious. If you don’t receive any mail at all for several days, call and report it to the USPS. Also check with your neighbors to see if they are having the same issue.
- Go paperless. For as many items as you can, rely exclusively on electronic billing and payments. No bills coming in and no checks going out make your mail much less of a target.
We Can Help
Cultris Security Systems can help your community or apartment complex with access control and CCTV systems for your mailboxes or mailroom. Call us at 281-506-8466 or reach us online today!
