"I brought the meds back to my neighbor and he thought it was quite odd since he has a locked mailbox."

Don't you have a locked mailbox? If not, you should get one!

Hmmm... I would bet people are stealing for street meds. And although you may be right, there may be some other reason that mail was taken from two addresses. Possibly the mailman set the mail down and it was lost, or maybe some was stolen directly from him.

I would definitely report the incident to your post office. They may even want to get the police involved. Stealing from the mail is a federal and very serious offense. And the fact that meds were involved probably makes it especially important to report (even if those specific meds weren't taken).

I would also be sure to keep track of your credit card purchases in case mail with your credit card number has been stolen and I as suggested, I would purchase a mailbox with a lock.

According to the police reports usually this kind of stuff is done by kids living within 6 blocks of your home. Quite often it is friends of your kids. My home is fairly new and we have one of the multifamily mail boxes. I really like them.

Ya I'm thinking about the locking mailbox. Very few people have them around here - it's generally a very safe low crime area. Definitely not friends of my kids since I have no kids but I do think it's kids.

Vala, what's a multifamily mailbox? Like a group of mailboxes placed together down the block? Are they locked?

Gibby: I would certainly report to police what happened. I would also contact Netflix and explain what happened. And I'd look into getting a locked box. A few weeks ago, my new credit card came in the mail. To activate it, you have to provide some personal info, like a "phone password" (not the account password) to prove who you are. But even tho that would trip up a thief, that's something I don't want in a stranger's hands.

Do you feel comfortable talking to all your neighbors to (1) warn them that somebody's going through the mail, and (2) see if just a simple mention of this theft somehow stops that from happening if the culprits are among those neighbors' kids?

I used to put my Netflix movies in my mailbox to go back to them, but quit when they started turning up missing. I then started back about a year ago using my mailbox, and again no DVD returned to them. No more putting anything out there.

That's why I don't trust the mail for anything important. Too easy to be stolen....either outgoing mail or delivered mail.

I've caught many people opening our mailbox (on the curb), and putting fliers into it. For all I know, they are ruffling through the contents to see if there is nything "good" in there.

It is against the law the use a Malbox for any purpose than the US Mail.

I just read about a postman being found with hundreds of stolen DVDs from Netflix and lots of undelivered mail. Whenever Netflix starts having a lot of problems with a certain area/zip code, they report it to the post office and it gets investigated.

Would a security camera set-up be feasible at that location? If not, I would ask the PO if you all can move the boxes to a better, closer location.

Our mailbox is 1/3 of a mile from our house and I don't put anything out there anymore in the outgoing mail. And we try to pick up the mail within an hour of its delivery every day.

Mail theft is a serious offense! You should definitely report it.

I just don't think there are any safe areas anymore these days!

Report it to the police and postal service. We used to have a problem on our block of the mail carrier putting mail in the wrong boxes. I would report it every time. The postal service is supposed to make sure the carriers deliver the mail correctly. Our mailboxes are at our doors, which makes it a little more secure.

I would call and report it to the police and also to the post office. A couple of years ago a pile of mail, some burned, some unburned, was found in a rural area near here at a mail carrier's home. He wasn't delivering the mail that he felt was not important. In your case it may be kids or general theft, but the way people are after drugs and meds today it may not have been.

We don't have a locking mail box either, I guess they are getting more and more popular....and needed as well.

made my mom stop using her mailbox ouside her mobilehome in vegas, when a check to the utility co was stolen and "washed".. the crazy thing, though? the sob that stole cashed it at check cashing place and had his name and thumb print on it...get this! the bank just replaced the funds stolen from her acct, and didn't go after the dude! stupid on the perp and the bank....

Years ago in CA in a rural area mail was stolen all the time both on the west side and east side. We got a PO Box and had most of the stuff delivered there. Most of the time it was not only kids but people living out in the desert in cars etc or some neighbors mad at us. One time it was the rural carrier. Then about a year before we moved I started either loosing mail or getting it late due to someone working there. It was a contract station in the city. He got mad at myself and others and we do not know why. When we moved, it took us a month and several complaints to get the mail, and I know we lost alot of it by being stolen by this guy, but cannot prove it. I did call and he put me on hold for 20 minutes, then hung up. Called back the next day and talked to a different person (friend of mine) and told her what happened and she talked to someone and did get some of the lost mail. But then she couldn't do much .Be awre that contract stations are under different rules.

I was just reading something this past weekend where a mail carrier was found to have stolen LOTS of DVDs in Netflix envelopes. Hmmmmm.....any chance your CARRIER is the culprit?

Pammyfay, we live in Phoenix where this is popular. At the end of the street there are numbered steel boxes, none of which correlate to your address so you don't know whose is whose, that are locked and can hold about half as much as a regular mailbox. Below them there are larger boxes that, if you have a package that won't fit in your box, the mailperson will leave a key or in your box. You get your package out but the key can't be taken back out by you, only the PO so no one can steal it.

Anyone who has their mail stolen should report it to the PO, it is a federal offense, and if your mailperson is incompetent they need to be reported as well. If your neighbor's meds were a narcotic they could be sold for a high street value, and if the bottle with their name on it is involved your neighbor would probably have a hard time defending that it was stolen from a locked mailbox.

Michelle--thanks for explaining that. Because now I know what MY mailbox is part of! Same as yours, without the larger parcel part (our mailman will bring it to the door).
But yes, each one is locked and has a number, but not our house numbers.

Sure beats the locked mailboxes in apartments -- the mail was safe, but whenever there was something that wouldn't fit, the letter carrier would leave it against the wall. Bad, bad, bad.

I've found undelivered mail a few doors down. Could have been that it was delivered wrong (at the time, it was quite common). It could be that someone saw it was not theirs and just tossed it, could be it was put back in the box and fell out or blew out. Could be a lot of things. It's also not unusual for postal employees to be crooked. You see it in the news often.

I use the post office for very little. As little as possible. When I can't pay bills and the like via the internet or phone, I have the bank send a draft and they guarantee it's on time or they pay any penalty. Still uses the post office but removes liability from me.

And telling the post office they're not delivering correctly... good luck. "I'll tell the carrier...." is the typical response. Whether there's any action thereafter is dubious at best. When I complained about them not delivering registered mail (instead they toss a slip in the box saying to pick it up at the PO, the supervisor said "They're supposed to. You'll have to talk to the carrier". Lazy ba$tards....

I disagree, Cynic. When we moved to our new house the mail carrier sucked. Wrong mail, no mail, late mail, she smoked in the car where she had all the mail in buckets in the back, etc. and I went into the office and filed a complaint. Within 2 days we got the best mail carrier ever, friendly, punctual, and has been for the last 7 years now.

I love the PO. They are quicker and cheaper than UPS or FedEx for smaller items, and I have only once been let down by them in my shipping for my business, and the insurance covered it.

cynic, I don't know why you are so cynical about the Post Office. Granted maybe yours is different but they are very professional in the area I live.

As for registered mail... Around here the leaving of the slip is actually kind of an extra a service for the customer. The postman comes and tries to deliver it if you weren't home or don't answer, they leave a slip that you can pick it up that day. Otherwise, they try again the next day, etc. The slip is for your convenience to let you know you have registered mail.

I'm guessing if they never bring the letter with them to deliver in your area, it's because the mailman isn't close enough to make numerous trips back during the day to get the letters back there so people can pick them up so it becomes more beneficial for the customer to be able to just pick up whenever they want. Think about it, if no one is home most the day but the post man is going to be a carrying the letter around all day to try to deliver to you. You can't get it when it's convenient for you. The post man is at your home at 11:00, you get home at 3:00 but he's not back to the office with in until 5:25 -5:45 and the office closes at 5:30. That letter can't be two places at once. Do you want in on the street walking around or at the office for you to pick up? You also want to consider that yours is probably not the only registered letter, should he just be making trips back anf forth to the post office all day instead of delivering mail. How would you do it differently while still keeping the mail flowing efficiently in your area?

I've complained to the local postmaster about the misdelivered mail on my street for about fifteen years. Mail is still often delivered to the wrong mailbox. I do as much as possible online. I'd skip the Netflix DVDs but there are a lot of movies I want to watch that aren't yet available streaming.

I'm looking at the locking boxes - don't quite see how that works. Must be something like a drop box - where you can somehow drop it in but you can't reach inside. I've been looking online but will have to go look at one in person.

We have a lock box mailbox. It is like a drop box. I don't like this particular mailbox because outgoing mail isn't locked. The kids are able to reach in and pull out delivered mail. Big packages are still left on the front porch.

In a previous house, we had a locked mailbox that was for about 10 different people. Everything was locked and everyone including the mail carrier had a key. We each had our own slot we could unlock. If we had apackage, the mail carrier left you a key to the big packages lot. All outgoing mail went into a drop box area that the mail carrier unlocked with his key.

Do report the incident. Messing with the mail is a Federal offense.

"In a previous house, we had a locked mailbox that was for about 10 different people. Everything was locked and everyone including the mail carrier had a key. We each had our own slot we could unlock. If we had apackage, the mail carrier left you a key to the big packages lot."

Is there an echo in here? ;-)