It’s the Christmas season, which means delivery drivers will be pushing Christmas presents with dangerous Grinches on the prowl.
Recent break-ins and vehicle thefts from delivery drivers have highlighted the threats they face when handling the onslaught of deliveries and gifts. Drivers for Amazon, FedEx and UPS have been attacked over the past month.
The United States Postal Service is also vulnerable: Assaults on postal workers increased 231% in the last three years, according to the Postal Police Officers Association.
According to data from the Postal Service, 412 mail carriers were robbed in 2020. In the first half of this year alone, 305 employee robberies were reported.
Armed robberies of mail carriers increased dramatically between 2018 and 2021, increasing from 36 to 154 reported incidents, according to the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS).
Letter carriers and delivery drivers in Chicago, Cincinnati, Houston, Phoenix, San Francisco and other cities over the past two months have demanded safer conditions for delivery drivers on their routes in “Enough is Enough” rallies through the National Association of Letter Carriers.
X/Orange County Sheriff’s Office
Recently, U.S. Postal Inspection Service National Public Information Officer Michael Martel told Fox News Digital that thieves have been after postal workers’ “arrow keys,” which can be used to open most postal boxes, after instructions on how to use and detect them proliferated online. .
Using those keys, he said, thieves can obtain financial documents such as Social Security checks to commit fraud, along with prescriptions and other valuable items.
Keys can reportedly cost thousands of dollars on the black market.
ROBBED AT GUNPOINT: Terrifying video shows 2 brazen criminals robbing a delivery driver on January 13. He was not injured. They have been arrested thanks to our criminal analysts and robbery detectives. With 85 felony charges and 11 convictions on their record, we hope they stay locked up. pic.twitter.com/cSIoVt3pME
— Orange County Sheriff’s Office (@OrangeCoSheriff) January 26, 2023
In May of this year, Martel said, USPIS expanded its “Project Secure Delivery” program in light of the increase in mail thefts and thefts.
As part of the initiative, the agency installed more than 10,000 mail collection boxes upgraded with additional security features, Martel said, and 6,500 additional electronic locks.
Also since May, USPIS and law enforcement agencies across the country have made 109 arrests for theft and more than 530 arrests for mail theft.
X/Orange County Sheriff’s Office
“There is certainly a greater chance of mail theft occurring during the holiday season,” Martel said Thursday. “The Postal Service and the Secure Delivery project will continue through the holidays to keep the U.S. Mail and our employees safe.”
On Tuesday, the agency arrested Devan Flax, 20, in connection with two armed robberies of USPS carriers in Chicago, the agency wrote in a news release.
The man had robbed a mailman at gunpoint on Saturday, the agency said, and then another on Tuesday.
After his arrest, two stolen postal keys and the firearm used in the robberies were confiscated. Flax was charged with two counts of armed robbery, one count of aggravated robbery and three counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.
Martel said thieves also break into carriers’ trucks and curbside boxes to store packages en route.
More recently, an Amazon driver in New Haven, Connecticut, was robbed by four car thieves, one of them armed, while unloading packages from his truck early Wednesday morning.
The armed man pointed his gun at the driver and demanded that he get into the truck. The men collected the packages in the vehicle and then fled the scene. The New Haven Police Department said the driver was shaken but uninjured.
Two days earlier in Colorado, a car thief shot a FedEx driver, the Denver Police Department told Fox News Digital.
Officers responded to the scene around 4:30 pm on Monday and took the victim from the North Vine Street crime scene to a hospital where he was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
His stolen truck was later found on Garfield Street, police said.
Video captured from a nearby apartment shows the thieves jumping out of the front of the van and running to the back, where the door was already open. @ATL_SCOOP/X
“The case remains under investigation, including whether anything was stolen from the vehicle,” a department public information officer wrote in an email Thursday. “No arrests have been made.”
On Thanksgiving Day in Chicago, two armed men robbed another FedEx driver in the Bucktown neighborhood around 10:43 a.m.
The two delivery drivers, a 32-year-old man and his 50-year-old partner, were reportedly ordered to the ground on North Honore Street. The two thieves then transferred the packages in the truck to their own silver Infiniti SUV.
In an incident the day before, about six masked gunmen arrived in a black Jeep and hit a man in the back of the head with a gun on Chicago’s West Carroll Avenue, then fled the scene in the company’s silver Infiniti SUV. the victim, police said.
The department is reportedly investigating whether the two incidents are related, CWB Chicago reported.
In response to the incidents, a FedEx spokesperson told Fox News Digital that “the security of [its] team members and safety [its] customer shipments” were their top priorities.
Several men allegedly used an unknown tool to open the security latch on the truck’s sealed rear doors and took numerous packages. FOX13 Memphis
“We have rigorous security programs in place to ensure team members are safe and customer property is protected,” the company representative wrote in an email Wednesday.
Earlier this month, doorbell camera footage in Maryland captured the daytime armed carjacking of a UPS driver.
The Glenarden attack on Elk Avenue took place around 2 p.m. on Nov. 10, according to the Prince George’s County Police Department.
The daylight robbery took place as the UPS driver was delivering packages around 2 p.m. on November 9. FOX 5 Washington DC/YouTube
In the footage, the driver can be heard screaming that her brown truck was hijacked at gunpoint after several suspects robbed her.
She can then be seen calling the police on her cell phone.
“They just pointed a gun at me,” the UPS driver can be heard telling dispatchers in Ring doorbell footage obtained by FOX 5.
In the last three years, attacks against postal employees who deliver mail have increased by 231%.
Mail carriers deserve to feel safe in their jobs, and my legislation ensures that postal police can adequately protect mail carriers from real threats on their routes. https://t.co/alNBinGq3B
— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) November 29, 2023
The neighbor whose camera captured the video said he initially thought a couple was fighting outside their home.
“It’s very brazen, in broad daylight,” the man told FOX 5. “Most houses have cameras, so to do it right in front of everyone’s house that has front-view cameras, it’s a little disconcerting.” .
“You hope things get a little better,” the neighbor continued. “Maybe it’s the weather, but it’s unfortunate – you have to be alert and watch your back.”
On Tuesday, Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, introduced the Postal Police Reform Act with bipartisan support in response to the apparent uptick.
Currently, Postal Police officers can only work on USPS properties; The proposed legislation would allow them to operate and carry out arrests off-site.
“Our nation has seen an unacceptable increase in postal crime, and due to current restrictions, Postal Police officers are unable to carry out important public safety duties,” Collins wrote in a news release. “By allowing Postal Police officers to work beyond Postal Service properties, this bipartisan legislation recognizes the urgent need to protect our letter carriers and better secure our entire postal system.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn