USPS: Someone stole three blue mail collection boxes off St. Paul streets

Someone took mail theft to new lows in St. Paul by stealing three blue collection boxes — the entire box — from their public locations by cutting them free from the ground, according to an official with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

The boxes were later recovered, but neither the exact spot they were taken from nor where they were found is being disclosed for now as the investigation continues, said Rachel Williams, a spokeswoman for the inspection service, the federal agency that protects the mail.

The boxes were taken sometime in early January from an area that Williams said was “not a high-volume” location for mail delivery. The boxes were cut into, said Williams, but it’s unclear if mail was stolen since it’s not known how much mail they contained when the boxes were taken.

USPS uses a network of nearly 140,000 blue collection boxes nationwide, and the theft of one of the boxes is rare, said Williams. “It’s not a frequent occurrence,” she said.

Crimes against letter carriers have spiked in recent years, however, including armed robberies less than 24 hours apart of carriers in Edina and Brooklyn Center last fall.

Thieves have been targeting mail for a variety of reasons, including “check washing” schemes where information is stolen from real checks to create fake checks using real bank account numbers. The National Association of Letter Carriers held a news conference last month calling for more protections for members of their group, citing statistics that show 2,000 violent attacks on letter carriers nationwide since 2020. The USPS stepped up efforts last year to reduce postal crimes in response, using enforcement surges, more secure collection boxes and new, electronic locks to thwart criminals.

Anyone with information on the stolen St. Paul boxes is encouraged to call the National Law Enforcement Communications Center of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service at 888-876-5322 or 877-876-2455.