Armed robbery of USPS letter carrier highlights mail theft epidemic

Authorities in Detroit are offering a hefty reward for information on a suspect who committed armed robbery on a United States Postal Service (USPS) letter carrier last week. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service said they will give out $50,000 for tips that lead to the arrest and conviction of the suspect.

The suspect is described by officials as a dark-complexioned African American male wearing a dark hoodie, blue and black striped pajama pants and a black neck gaiter. He is said to stand approximately 5′ 11″ tall, weigh roughly 160 lbs., and appeared to be in his 20s.

The armed robbery of the letter carrier comes amid a worrying trend of mail theft that experts say the U.S. Postal Service is not equipped to handle. The president of a national union for the postal police force has called it a “mail theft epidemic.”

According to an internal USPS memo, there’s been a 400% increase in postal robberies since 2019. That’s an increase of more than 7,000 reported violent crimes against postal employees.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, wrote a letter to top postal officials last month, urging them to do something to keep mail and mail carriers safer. The senator blamed the Postal Inspection Service for no longer allowing postal police officers to patrol mail carrier routes.

It’s not just Sen. Brown who is concerned. A subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform went to Philadelphia to ask local leaders about recent increases in postal mail theft, crime and whether the Postal Service was prepared to effectively receive and deliver mail-in ballots nationally during the upcoming midterm elections.

The mail theft epidemic is just part of a larger crime wave that has swept over the United State just ahead of the midterm elections. Now one of the top concerns for Americans, Republicans made Democratic mishandling of the crime wave a key campaign message, and are now in position to take the House and possibly the Senate as well.

USA Today and WWJ 950 contributed to this report.