Investigative Case Highlights

Postal Service employees are not only entrusted with delivering the mail — they’re also responsible for the security of arrow keys (which are used to open those iconic blue collection mailboxes and cluster box units, like those used in apartment buildings). It’s one thing for thieves to assault postal employees for their arrow keys — it’s another level of egregiousness when a postal employee...

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) routinely investigates illegal narcotics being trafficked through the mail. However, when there’s suspicion that a postal employee may be involved, our special agents are called in to bring that person to justice.

This was no ordinary mail theft investigation. Complaints were flooding the lines: Postal Service customers around Chicago were calling their banks and credit card issuers saying checks and cards were being stolen from the mail and fraudulently used. Those institutions and clients were reporting the thefts directly to our Hotline and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which investigates mail...

There’s a sinking feeling when you realize a check you’ve mailed goes missing, never to be found. But it’s a bigger blow when you hear the check wound up on a social media platform for sale.

When the theft of a $14,000 IRS refund check from the mail triggered an investigation, what our special agents uncovered would be the first clue that would unravel a criminal network exploiting one of the country’s most trusted government agencies: the U.S. Postal Service.