Thieves enter West Loop building with postal keys, steal packages and mail on two separate occasions
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Last week, we told you about stolen mail taken out of blue U.S. Postal Service mailboxes in the West Loop – and in some cases, checks that were taken, altered, and cashed.
We have been telling you about missing mail in the West Loop and other Chicago neighborhoods for years. Part of the problem involves USPS mail keys being used to gain access to buildings and mailboxes.
That happened most recently at a building on Washington Boulevard and Ada Street. As CBS 2's Sabrina Franza reported Wednesday, tenants at the building sealed the keyhole shut, and plastered the culprits' faces on the door after they were caught on surveillance video.
"The message is clear," said a resident of the building named Krzysztof. "We know who you are. We know how you look like."
In screen grabs from surveillance video, you can see the plan in action. Two people in two different cases – one on June 19 and the other on June 26 – are dressed in street clothes as they use a USPS mail key to enter the Washington Square building, at 1301 W. Washington Blvd. between Ada and Throop streets.
They snag packages. And they get not just into the lobby – but also the mailbox, from which they take letters.
"They took anywhere from 20 to 30 packages," said Krzysztof. "That comes to, you know, hundreds of dollars of merchandise that was taken - and we were raided twice in a one-week period."
Tenants in the building decided they'd had enough.
"When they are taking your mail, they are taking your identity as well, right? So there may be some information in the mail that can be very sensitive; that you would not want to share with anybody other than the recipient of the mail," Krzysztof said. "And that's what's happening."
The tenants filed a report with U.S. Postal inspectors, but they also cut off the keyhole for their front door. People can now only get in using the code pad.
"We were right about it," Krzysztof said.
The two thieves have not gotten back in, he said, "because the access was killed already."
Such mail theft is a West Loop trend that we have been reporting on since 2019. In the case Franza reported on last week, a woman named Chelsea sent a check for $63.84 through the mail – and had a couple of zeros added to that $63.84 figure that she did not authorize at all. The amount changed to $6,300.84, and the recipient was also changed.
An elderly couple living in the Washington Square building were worried to show their faces on camera, but did show us a check for a $70 electric bill that was altered to become a check for $3,921.
They heard their mail was stolen and called the bank before the check was cashed – avoiding a financial nightmare.
The question remains, how did the thieves get a USPS key?
"We have no idea how it happened," Krzysztof said. "Nobody notified us about it."
We asked the U.S. Postal inspectors if they were aware of the trend. They said they are aware and that it is an open investigation, but would not reveal any further details.
We've been asking this same question for years, and we will stay on top of it.
