The U.S. Postal Service has vowed to take strong measures to address the increasing theft of Americans' mail — including checks and packages, as well as the valuable information that identity thieves are after.
Despite the surge in mail theft cases, with complaints jumping from under 60,000 in 2018 to over 250,000 in 2023, a recent investigation by CBS News revealed that the postal service is not consistently implementing measures to secure the millions of universal "arrow keys" that unlock bulk mailboxes in apartment complexes and neighborhoods across the country.
Various audits conducted at postal facilities from New York to Los Angeles have uncovered instances where employees and supervisors are neglecting to adhere to fundamental, established regulations designed to safeguard these keys and prevent a common method through which thieves are pilfering large quantities of mail.
From 2019 to 2024, the records reviewed by CBS News showed that auditors checked 84 postal facilities for issues related to securing their arrow keys. In 76 facilities across 25 states and the District of Columbia, the inspectors found untracked or unsecured arrow keys.
That's 90% of all sites checked, according to the data gathered by CBS.
In September, the Postal Service Inspector General identified arrow key accountability as one of three areas the post office should focus on to cut down on mail theft. That followed an earlier audit faulting arrow key security failures in 2020.
That's certainly the case for Maria Tsalis, who learned from local police in January that thieves were swiping mail from the cluster mailboxes in her neighborhood in Palos Heights, Illinois.
"I completely know they would have just emptied out my bank account. Luckily, it was only the two checks," Tsalis said.
In response to the September 2023 inspector general report, Postal Service leaders said the agency would be implementing increased arrow key training and awareness in November.
However, the records CBS reviewed show the failures continue.
As of last month, inspectors found arrow key security issues at 10 of the 12 facilities inspected so far this year, including postal sites in California, Texas, Minnesota and Maryland.
Federal law enforcement, members of Congress and the Postal Service itself have been reiterating for decades the vulnerability of the mail to the loss and theft of the universal keys that open the ubiquitous blue collection boxes and cluster delivery boxes at apartments and subdivisions coast to coast. CBS found references to lax arrow key controls dating back to 1999.
"In the 25 years that you're talking about — in the early part of that 25 years — we've done one-off mitigation strategies to address weaknesses or vulnerabilities that were found with the current arrow key system" rather than implementing a broader solution, said Peter Rendina, the USPS' deputy chief postal inspector.
The agency now says it is upgrading mailboxes with electronic locking mechanics — a project that will take many years and billions of dollars. In the meantime, officials pledge better security over arrow keys.
Rendina noted there are hundreds of thousands of routes and postal boxes to upgrade nationwide.
"This is not an overnight change," Rendina said.
Postal Service Security Concerns
Recent assessments reveal troubling security issues within the Postal Service, as inspectors uncover repeated failures in safeguarding keys over the past decade.
Instances of security lapses include:
-
17 arrow keys missing at the Eagan, Minn., post office in 2024. Management was unaware of the missing keys until inspectors intervened. Similar concerns were raised seven years prior at the same location.
-
At Carrollton Station in New Orleans, a secure key space was found unattended with the key left in the lock multiple times in 2023.
-
Inspectors at the Inglewood Carrier Annex in Southern California discovered that more than half of the keys on the inventory were missing this year. Staff had falsely certified the accuracy of the arrow key list without actually checking the keys on hand.
-
During a 2019 inspection of 16 postal facilities in the Richmond, Virginia area, lax arrow key security was observed at 15 sites. At one location, 10 arrow keys were unaccounted for, with the last key log update dating back over two years.
Inspectors discovered unsecured arrow keys at the central carrier station in New Orleans during an inspection in 2020. Upon their return three years later, in 2023, the facility could only verify the existence of keys for 21 out of 49 routes.
The inspector general also highlighted that the Postal Service lacks a national inventory of keys, with no knowledge of the total number in existence or the count of missing, stolen, or broken keys. When questioned about the quantity of keys in circulation, agency leaders admitted to the inspector general that they were unaware, providing only an estimate of "in the millions."
This revelation did not come as a surprise to Inspector General Tammy Hull.
"It's not surprising, but it's concerning," Hull expressed to CBS. "And it's something that we see basically everywhere we go."
"The issue is critical because the keys play a vital role in ensuring mail security," she emphasized.
The accessibility of keys to carriers and other postal workers is a significant concern, as it provides an avenue for criminals to obtain the keys.
Recent federal arrest records and legal proceedings have been rife with instances of postal workers engaging in the theft, sale, or bribery involving arrow keys.
An audit conducted in April 2023 at four postal facilities in South Florida revealed inadequate security measures surrounding arrow keys at three of the locations.
Shortly thereafter, law enforcement received a tip regarding a postal employee in the area attempting to sell arrow keys for a substantial sum of $10,000. Subsequently, a sting operation was organized, leading to the worker selling an arrow key and half a million dollars in pilfered checks to an undercover agent, as outlined in court filings.
During legal proceedings, the accused worker reportedly confessed to pilfering arrow keys, vending them, and harboring a duffel bag containing checks valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars in their residence.
The illicit trade of arrow keys is not an uncommon occurrence. According to criminology expert David Maimon from Georgia State University, prices for arrow keys on the dark web can range from $1,000 to $7,000.
The high demand for arrow keys has even resulted in acts of violence against postal carriers. In correspondence to U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy disclosed that a staggering 82% of robberies specifically targeted arrow keys.
In a startling revelation, documents obtained by a news outlet unveiled a concerning trend of increasing cases of robbery or assault against USPS employees from 2014 to 2023. The data showed a continuous rise in incidents, with 1,129 cases reported in 2023. This marked a staggering 404% surge compared to the 224 cases documented in 2014.
Amidst the spike in mail-related crimes, the Postal Inspection Service, responsible for safeguarding mail and postal workers, grappled with constrained budgets and staffing issues. Funding for postal police dwindled from $541 million in 2004 to $584 million in 2023 – a significant 33% decline when adjusted for inflation.
Furthermore, the staffing levels within the inspection service witnessed a decline, with the number of inspectors dropping from 2,914 in 2015 to approximately 2,300 in 2022, as per the latest available estimates.
