Again thanks for the info. I will start check my credit and such!

Replacing stolen mail and paying for a P.O. box… Can’t afford that.

I’d rather go to the shops and save the $$. And stick with signature only post in future.

Going paperless is a very good suggestion for that reason. Already paperless for banks.

Does anyone know what you can do about people sending you credit card applications you didn’t ask for? Never thought that could be a problem until reading these posts.

Strangely enough, we have the old fashoned mail slot that comes into the house. It’s right next to a huge window and the front door and yes, someone still came all the way up stole our Netflix that we were returning while we were home even!

They were hanging out the flap about 3 inches. I noticed they were gone around 2:30 and thought the mail had come and we just didn’t get any today. When the mail man showed up at 4:00 with mail, we ran out and asked if he or some other post man had already picked up our outgoing mail. He said no and we said crap.
I can’t belive someone would come up to our house, next to our huge window while we are home and steal something as silly as Netflix! What guts they have. The funny thing is that it was Dexter and Grey’s Anatomy. Not realy worth stealing…

Not sure if I should report it or not but I’m sure not putting my outgoing mail in my slot ever again. I’ll drive to the Post Office from now on.

At home, I’m not getting everything I should have received and there’s always someone else’s mail in by box; either from same-number-different-street, same-street-different-number or entirely random.

I’m convinced the post office does all their hiring from the “list of unemployable” at the unemployment office.

I came across your blog entry when looking for resources as to what to do when mail gets stolen. A package containing tax forms with my SSN on it was stolen, and all the police departments in DC are refusing to file a report unless I can verify actual identity theft. I keep telling them that this is an incidence of mail theft, but it’s falling on deaf ears.

My question is, did you actually file a police report? What did you say to get them to do it? Did they come out to your house or did you have to go into a PD to file one? Thank you so much for your help, I’m pretty tore up over this.

I noticed some of the web page links mentioned are no longer available. Here is a site that I found that seems to have some good security mailboxes:
http://www.mailboxworks.com/CAT_Locking_Mailboxes.html

Thanks for all of the info everyone has shared – it is really helpful!

I went down to the police station and filed a report. I know it can’t get back the check my parents sent me for my fucking BIRTHDAY, but it’s documentation of the theft. And since I was standing there while the carrier delivered the letter, it’s not like someone came by and yanked it from my box.

I’m really upset about this, not because of the money, which is replacable, but how I was treated by everyone (except the police) at the post office, who acted like it was just something that happens and I should suck it up!

[...] is about. I encourage you to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Identity theft sucks. Our mail was stolen recently. All that we know we’re missing are some tax documents, but we’re not taking any [...]

I’d done business with both locations for many years, and knew the proprietors quite well, so I don’t know if this is something they’d be willing to do for every customer, or if the laws have been tightened since the last time I had need for it.

I use the UPS Store (previously a Mail Boxes Etc.) method of dealing with mail. The only things that go to the house are things from the state, who stupidly insist that you get mail where you live, and a couple of inconsequential bills so that I have something to show the tax twits when they try to say I don’t live in my house because of the UPS Store box.

All my vital stuff goes to the UPS Store. No missing mail that I know of. I do drop mail in corner boxes when sending, as my house box is just a box with a lid. I can mail from the UPS Store also. I find the expense worth being able to receive anything from anyone. If a carrier turtle brings in a package with my name or number on it, they’ll take it. The largest item to date was a TV on a private delivery truck.

As for not being able to forward mail, that is not the fault of the private mail store. The technical term is Commercial Mail Receiving Agent (CMRA). The Post Office hates these things and paints them as dubious businesses when they can. The Post Office does not allow CMRAs to forward mail. This is deliberate in an attempt to make them seem inferior to the Post Office.

I have no complaints. Nearly a decade of reliable service. Sorry if I made this sound like an ad.

[...] linked to this article at Get Rich Slowly yesterday, in passing, because it reminded me about the dangers of one’s [...]

I always drop my mail off at my local post office. Even if after closing, they have slots usually open 24/7.

If not, I say get the PO Box.

That being said, I do get mail returned to me by neighbors and one time had someone call me about a package delivered to a totally different street on the other side of town.

[...] of my favorite bloggers, J.D. over at Get Rich Slowly, had some of his mail stolen last week. His top tip? Tell your mail carrier – they can help you with the recovery steps [...]

[...] debit report, they do not print the whole SSN on the report. I mention this because I just read this article at Get Rich Slowly and if you’re in a situation anything like mine, you’re probably in [...]

I have no idea what to do about that, either, other than complain. Unless a USPS package has delivery confirmation on it, I can’t prove it was sent to me anyway. So I guess I would recommend that if anyone here wants to send a package to a loved one via the postal service, you’d do well to go ahead and splurge the less than a dollar it costs to have something the post office can track.

Crooks have a way of washing the ink off checks and writing them anew. So they could erase and rewrite the payee and amount on a check and keep the signature.

It is a shame you cannot trust people these days.

Derrick

Credit freeze..yeah that’s the term I was looking for! I better take more ginko.

On this subject, I just noticed my complex posted a sign at our mailbox island warning people not to leave mail in their boxes overnight to avoid theft. I guess they don’t feel too secure about those locking mailboxes.

We sold our house two years ago and moved to a retirement community. I still work – self employed – and of course notified all my customers of my new address, but some don’t pay atrention so even after forwarding expired, soe checks still got sent to my old address.

Do you think the jerk that bought our house could have tossed them back to the postman so that they could have been returned to sender? Nope – the *$%@ even has my email address, so he could have TOLD me he had checks and I would have driven to pick them up. But nooooo, the lazy %$#@! apparently just throws them away..

Some people.. if *I* get a check that does not belong to me I make every effort to get it where it DOES belong or at least returned to the sender – that’s just ordinary human courtesy. But not this $%%@!..

Contact anyone you think may have sent anything important recently to find out if they actually did. That’ll help you narrow down what might have gone missing.

Good luck!