attn: theft of USPS delivered COVID19 test kits

In anticipation of soon receiving my free COVID-19 test kit in the mail, this past Saturday I asked my mailman, who I know well, if he had delivered any test kits in my single-family residential neighborhood and told him that I found my and my two neighbors’ mailbox lids wide open today, after walking my dogs. He responded the following:

• Free kits are now being delivered on other routes, but not yet on his.

• As expected, mail thieves have already swooped in checking residential mailboxes for these free test kits; he is on alert looking for any suspicious activity. Today, one of your neighbors observed a car stopping at and opening mailboxes, called the Los Angeles County Sheriff Station in your city that quickly dispatched deputies who caught and arrested the thieves with a load of mail with no free COVID-19 test kits in their car.

• As always, pick up your mail as soon as possible after delivery.
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Why not install a locking secured mailbox?

I did 4 years ago after a mail thief/thieves swept through my neighborhood overnight duing the Holiday Season, leaving every mailbox lid wide open and some demolished like mine. Because my mailman asked me to replace my damaged mailbox ASAP and rather than have my HOA replace and install the same cheap mailbox, I quickly ordered online and installed an anti-theft bin design mailbox made of heavy gauge welded steel construction with a patented anti-pry latch locking system featuring a chrome-alloy tempered steel hook cam as shown here.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Mail-Boss-Mail-Manager-Locking-P…
Well, this recent past Holiday Season, mail thieves swooped in again and demolished my anti-this and anti-that steel mailbox, punching out the key lock and prying opened the steel door. My mailman noticed all the opened mailbox lids early that morning while delivering packages and was kind enough to stop by and notify me. He told me not to waste my money buying another so-called secure mailbox and that these mailbox thieves had the tools to quickly break in without making any noticeable noise. So I had my HOA install their cheap-o standard mailbox.
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Oh, about the mail thieves caught by county sheriff deputies this past weekend? Given LA County’s hopeless feckless DA George Gascón who defends rather than prosecutes criminals, these thieves most likely will not be prosecuted and will be released and emboldened to continue stealing mail.

Regards,
Ray

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hopeless feckless DA George Gascón

Messing with the US Mail is a Federal offense. I doubt the local DA, feckless or not, has anything to say about it.

18 U.S. Code § 1708 - Theft or receipt of stolen mail matter gen­erally

Whoever steals, takes, or abstracts, or by fraud or deception obtains, or attempts so to obtain, from or out of any mail, post office, or station thereof, letter box, mail receptacle, or any mail route or other authorized depository for mail matter, or from a letter or mail carrier, any letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or abstracts or removes from any such letter, package, bag, or mail, any article or thing contained therein, or secretes, embezzles, or destroys any such letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or any article or thing contained therein; or

Whoever steals, takes, or abstracts, or by fraud or deception obtains any letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or any article or thing contained therein which has been left for collection upon or adjacent to a collection box or other authorized depository of mail matter; or

Whoever buys, receives, or conceals, or unlawfully has in his possession, any letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or any article or thing contained therein, which has been so stolen, taken, embezzled, or abstracted, as herein described, knowing the same to have been stolen, taken, embezzled, or abstracted—

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1708

If the LA County Deputies have been properly trained, they knew their duty was to hand over the perps to the USPS Postal Inspectors.

The United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), or the Postal Inspectors, is the law enforcement arm of the United States Postal Service. It supports and protects the U.S. Postal Service, its employees, infrastructure, and customers by enforcing the laws that defend the nation’s mail system from illegal or dangerous use. Its jurisdiction covers any “crimes that may adversely affect or fraudulently use the U.S. Mail, the postal system or postal employees.” With roots going back to the late 18th century, the USPIS is the oldest continually operating federal law enforcement agency.

In 2019, it made 5,759 arrests leading to nearly 5,000 convictions, mostly involving mail theft, mail fraud or contraband mailings. The growth in narcotics trading has resulted in 19,000 arrests and the seizure of $18 million in drug proceeds since 2010.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Postal_Inspectio…

Bet some of you didn’t know the Post Office had it’s own police force.

Steve

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Steve: Messing with the US Mail is a Federal offense. I doubt the local DA, feckless or not, has anything to say about it……If the LA County Deputies have been properly trained, they knew their duty was to hand over the perps to the USPS Postal Inspectors.
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First of all, I am not an attorney-at-law and didn’t want to get in the weeds about mail theft as a Federal and State of California crime. But since Steve raised this issue only from a Federal perspective, here goes a broader view as concise as possible.

In California, mail theft can be charged as a federal crime or as a California state criminal offense.

• Under 18 U.S.C. 1708, whoever steals, takes, or fraudulently obtains any letter, postcard, package back or mail can face up to 5 years in a federal prison. This includes taking mail from a home, post office, business, or taking mail that was left to be picked up by the post office.
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• Under a California statute Penal Code 530.5(e) PC that prohibits mail theft, "every person who commits mail theft, as defined in Section 1708 of Title 18 of the United States Code, is guilty of a public offense, and upon conviction therefor shall be punished by a fine, by imprisonment in a county jail not to exceed one year, or by both a fine and imprisonment.”
Examples are:
• stealing pieces of mail from a post office.
• using fraud or deceit to get someone else’s mail.
• stealing mail from a neighbor’s mailbox and destroying it.

Defenses
People accused of a crime under this statute can challenge the accusation with a legal defense. A few common defenses include defendants showing that:
• they took someone’s mail on accident,
• they did not act with criminal intent, and/or
• police officers violated one of their constitutional rights.

Penalties
A violation of California Penal Code Section 530.5(e) is a misdemeanor offense (as opposed to an infraction or a felony).
The crime is punishable by:
custody in county jail for up to one year, and/or
a maximum fine of $1,000.

Now my OP closing statement was based on charges under California law: Oh, about the mail thieves caught by county sheriff deputies this past weekend? Given LA County’s hopeless feckless DA George Gascón who defends rather than prosecutes criminals, these thieves most likely will not be prosecuted and will be released and emboldened to continue stealing mail.

I purposely mentioned above Defenses that DA Gascon would most likely embrace and not proceed with any prosecution of the mail thieves. LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who is fed up with Gascon, could hand the case to federal authorities, bypassing L.A. County District Attorney George Gascón, like he recently did in a case about the killing of off-duty LAPD officer.
LA sheriff asks feds to handle prosecution in off-duty cop shooting over concerns DA too lenient
https://www.yahoo.com/now/la-sheriff-asks-feds-handle-145848…

Regards,
Ray

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Somehow the whole idea of shipping four ‘Free’ tests to each ‘family’ through the mail fails the logic test? Our guys bulk ordered them and delivered cases to local libraries for pick up of one or two 5 packs or even handed them through your car window if you slow drove by their location with it open.

My daughter in California received her 4 tests but has 3 teenage boys who play a lot of sports. She ordered a ‘bunch’ (precise quantity unit of measure) from Amazon at US$25 for two tests and has used them all up. Two of the boys failed repeated COVID tests but were finally told to go back to school after 10 days anyway as they had no symptoms. She suspects the whole family had COVID though the middle guy passed repeated tests. Her employer (Large Canadian Bank) sent her a box with 20 tests in it Friday but she doesn’t really need them anymore.

Anymouse

OT - https://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/canada-world-cup-qualifier-…

Soccer

Canada defeats U.S. in Hamilton to remain unbeaten on impressive World Cup qualifying run

Canada continued its march to the World Cup in Qatar on Sunday, bundling the 11th-ranked United States out of its way in a 2-0 victory.

With four games remaining in the final round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying, the 40th-ranked Canadian men are turning heads while turning aside all comers in the region. Unbeaten Canada is on the verge of booking its ticket to soccer’s world showcase for the first time since 1986 — and only the second time ever.

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Besides worrying about thieves, those of us experiencing cold weather need to worry about the accuracy of the test being impaired from being in the cold too long:

According to Baird, freezing temperatures may impact at-home COVID-19 tests, but the answer is not black and white.

“Each of these tests has a dropper or some chemicals inside of it that work together with each other and each one is slightly different,” Baird explained. “So one manufacturer’s answer for that is different than another.”

https://www.krem.com/article/news/verify/does-cold-weather-r…

We can’t control how they got shipped to us, but try to get them off your doorstep or out of your mailbox ASAP. Some people around here are already getting their requests filled.

IP

Some people around here are already getting their requests filled.

I got mine Friday. The original email notification came just after midnight and indicated today as the delivery date. The delivery was updated later that morning at about 6:30 indicating it would be delivered that day.

For the reasons in the OP, I was going to have my neighbor check for me since I was at work, but I had not looked at email to notice the update - it looked like the original so much that I thought it was the same! No problem, the package was waiting in the mailbox without any evidence of porch piracy or mailbox mugging.

Pete

1 Like

…like he recently did in a case about the killing of off-duty LAPD officer.
LA sheriff asks feds to handle prosecution in off-duty cop shooting over concerns DA too lenient

That is encouraging news, that the perps may pull hard time in the Federal jug. I wonder what the Federal law is for packages delivered by private companies, like Amazon or UPS? Over the weekend, metro Detroit policemen caught a couple leaving an apartment complex, with the back seat of the car piled high with packages. The local news showed the video. The couple said they were delivery contractors, which would be easy enough to verify. In Michigan, stealing packages off people’s porches is a felony.

Steve

Bet some of you didn’t know the Post Office had it’s own police force.

Yes, and they are utterly useless. I was a victim of mail fraud; Someone submitted a forward request from my address to a different address so they would receive credit card bills in my name, and I wouldn’t see them while they rob me/a bank blind. I gave the USPIS all the details including the forwarding address, after I was informed that hundreds of addresses were forwarded to that one. And they did absolutely nothing. It took me a week to ten days to reverse the forward, and I lost probably 12 to 14 days of mail to the fraudsters. Even a month later some items would be forwarded by mistake. And then, of course, I had to deal with the new fraudulent credit card company on my own, the USPIS folks had no interest in helping, or even giving a “police report” to me. Instead I also reported the fraud to my local sheriff, and they gave me a copy of the police report.

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