Anyone Else Suddenly Having Their U.S. Mail Opened?

usta go on in this neighborhood quite often - but the post office has installed lock boxes in most areas now so it has pretty much stopped

"At fist", should of course be "At first".

Right, but this has the Post office stamp all around the edges on at least on letter, all along the repair. From the inside you can see where the slit is...

I don’t think this was neighborhood kids or junkies...

It's interesting how the privatization of the US Mail was pushed as a necessity on the public prior to events like the Oklahoma City Bombing and the WTC and Pentagon attacks.

i rember about eight years ago someone inside the post office was stealing money out of christmas cards and b-day cards, maybe that is what is happing in your post office orwhere it was sent too, they might be loooking for cash, no one sends money any more in cards it's either checks or cashier checks, if they take those it can be traced

Its been happening here quite a bit for the last few years.

Packages that should get here in just a few days take MONTHS!!

Letters are opened, come shreaded, magazines have been opened & read. (you can tell)

I've complained MANY times, doesn't do any good. Our post office has had a few anthrax scares. I would hope the investigation would help straighten it out but it didn't.

We are thinking about moving this summer. Hopefully, in our new town, the service is a bit better.

YES. For the last several months our mail from the UK to the USA has arrived opened and then poorly re-sealed.

It has been at leat 10-14 days "late" as well.

The envelopes are from our London brokerage and stamped "confidential", sent to us via airmail, and contains often large bank checks drawn on a London Bank.

We don't know what the deal is but we don't like it. The checks are always still in the envelope.

But either its the UK or US govt' sticking their noses in our business. Are they keeping track of the amount of $$$ we receive?

Whatever the reason it pisses me off.

Oh heck, that always goes on in small towns. It's called nosey snoopers who want to know everything about you. Just don't use the USPS for anything that you truly consider private, or they will snoop and think they know.

Order some filthy pornography to give them a thrill.

Our PO where we now live is a very tiny entity.

We have more damaged mail now than when we did when we lived in a bigger community.

Postal employees here are all related. Get on the "wrong" side of someone and the mail seems to suffer!

next time, mail yourself some anthrax

It happened to me about 2-3 months ago,
I ordered a book {on Native American Spirituality }
and when I received it the envelope had been torn open and it was stamped in red ink "Media mail subject to inspection"
by the time it arrived in my mailbox the envelop was pretty much in SHREDS, and the book was sticking out from all over,
amazing I even got the thing at all !
I did complain at my local {small town } post office, they were polite but clueless.

There are so many government agencies that love to inspect the mail of "parties of interest"; what group would be looking at you and why?

Dr. Postman, I've had two acquaintances that worked for the USPS that admitted to the practice of "borrowing" magazines for a while and sending them through once they realize it's close to the end of the month...or not at all if it's gone past the end. Have you found this to be the case? I'm not accusing you or anyone of anything, I'm curious and I trust what you write. Your candor is always refreshing.

"Dr. Postman, I've had two acquaintances that worked for the USPS that admitted to the practice of "borrowing" magazines for a while and sending them through once they realize it's close to the end of the month...or not at all if it's gone past the end. Have you found this to be the case? I'm not accusing you or anyone of anything, I'm curious and I trust what you write. Your candor is always refreshing."

... no... big no no... and as in big big no no.

The greatest fear of the ones who crave power is losing it. Their paranoia is bringing these despicable actions into our reality.

Remember the news article when Senor Boosh was attending the opening of the Clinton Library? As he looked around the room he commented that a submarine could get him from the river, and quickly made a hasty exit.

I don't know what happens in small POs, but in large ones, you'd best not be found reading magazines or opening mail. It would probably be dismissal. If they catch you opening/removing mail, the postal inspectors will come to you and arrest you. In spite of problems you might have, the US postal system is the best in the world, and very safe. Most of the torn up packages and envelopes are caused by customers putting too much weight into the package. I get loose stuff continually coming to me. It all gets sent to one work location and maybe they can match the envelope or package to the contents, or maybe they can't. Before you mail something, visualize it being churned down conveyor belts and falls and decide if you think it will survive this treatment. And ALL envelopes are BENT during processing. If your envelope can't be bent at least 45 degrees, you'd better put it into a package.
Just because you mark "fragile" on something doesn't mean a thing. You'd better pack it good. The post office isn't a bunch of old guys sitting around with visors on putting letters into boxes. It's AUTOMATION and mechanization.

The damage and opening was done, according to the stamps (ink stamps, not postage stamps) that cover the back and edges of the open portion, are from a fairly big city in another state.

I live in a pretty small community with about fifty people working the post office...

So it is unlikely it was opened here.

"It's interesting how the privatization of the US Mail was pushed as a necessity on the public prior to events like the Oklahoma City Bombing and the WTC and Pentagon attacks."

------

It was being pushed by conservatives long
before those events and continues to be.
But we are still not privatized.

... lol, no privatization.... although, and much like our government, sometimes methinks it would be really kewl if all us postal employees would get together and make it so.

The sanctity of First Class mail is taken
very seriously at the USPS. If someone
is opening your mail contact the Postal
Inspector Service. They don't fool around.

... for sure and for sure OP... report it immediately if not sooner. Do not open it... take it directly to your nearest P.O.

Also... we do get stuff, and sometimes, that has been roughed up a bit going through the mail system... but... it is also "always" plainly marked as such, and before you guys ever even get it.
At our P.O. here... we have recieved only one letter that had been opened before reaching its destination. It too was plainly marked as being previously opened, and from where and/or who did it as well.

"But one little tidbit that many don't
know. When your mail is in our system
it technically belongs to us. I might
be wrong about that, but ever since I
took the oath that's what I have heard.
I couldn't find verification with a web
search. My own personal experience is
that when I came across a package that
belonged to me I had to ask permission
to take it home if I didn't want to wait
for it to finish going through the system."

.... methinks/feels it only belongs to us in a care-taker kinda way.

I am not worried about a couple of thieves here and there, that is just part of the cost of doing business in any culture...

It is that all the personal mail to AND from me is getting places late, like weeks longer than it used to take, for some reason...

Only a few things have been obviously opened. I have actually NOT had a lot of "damaged" or obviously torn open letters. This is very careful work, without damage, but NOT being hidden at all...

"I live in a pretty small community with about fifty people working the post office...

So it is unlikely it was opened here."

... lol, what you call a small community I calls a city.... and as in out here, and for our entire county (or 4 post offices)... we have a grand total of 17 postal employees in all.

"It is that all the personal mail to AND from me is getting places late, like weeks longer than it used to take, for some reason..."

... oh please, report that as well... and I do promise you, it will be tracked.

"I am not worried about a couple of thieves here and there, that is just part of the cost of doing business in any culture..."

... if it involves the mail, the post office does though... and a great deal too.... and cuz ya just don't fool with other peoples mail... it is a Federal crime to do so, and it is taken very very seriously, and for real.

"Oh heck, that always goes on in small towns. It's called nosey snoopers"

No, it's called a federal crime. Mandatory prison sentencing. Whoever it is, unless they have a warrant, they need to keep their goddamn mits off your mail.

Could be the money orders you are receiving, op.

I think that parcel post got slower at the beginning of this year. USPS decided that it would save a few cents if they made sure the PP grade mail trucks were completely full before they rolled. Soooo the trucks now sit at shipping docks for days & weeks waiting for full loads.

NEWMAN !!!

Well if the govt don't think twice about tapping your phones, why should you be surprised if they open your mail too?

Or maybe the trucks are busy waiting for HHS inspectors. But we can't tell you that.

No, but I know they are reading my mind with laser beams.