Auditors report missing and un-accounted for cluster mailbox master-keys

By Ken Magri

On April 4, US Representative Ami Bera stood behind a podium in front of a cluster mailbox on Alderberry Way in North Natomas. He was there with Rancho Cordova City Councilmember Linda Budge and Sacramento City Councilmember Lisa Kaplan to discuss cluster mailbox break-ins and the results of a recent audit on master-key security practices at three Sacramento post offices.

“This is very real,” Bera said at the press conference. “So many of our seniors get their medications mailed to them, still get Social Security checks and other important correspondence, and a lot of us still write letters so we depend on the Postal Service, and it is very personal.”

Residents who use cluster mailboxes already know about the dramatic increase in mail theft over the last several years. It happens most often with stolen master- keys. News & Review covered this issue in March as break-ins continue with impunity up and down the Highway 99 corridor from Sacramento to Chico.

The thieves are after checks, drugs and anything that can be used to steal one’s identity. Now, with tax season ending, they are also looking for tax-refund checks to cash.

The audit’s findings

The US Inspector General’s audit, ordered last year by Bera, looked at the main Sacramento post office on Royal Oaks Drive, theRancho Cordova branch near Folsom Boulevard and the Fort Sutter branch on Alhambra Boulevard.

Completed in March, the audit discovered that dozens of cluster mailbox master keys were either missing or had not been recorded in a tracking system the US Postal Service established in 2022 called RADAR (Retail and Delivery Application Reports).

Missing or never-recorded were 129 keys, almost 30%, at the main Royal Oaks branch. The Fort Sutter office had 20% of its keys unaccounted for and Rancho Cordova had only three of its keys with such status.

A single master-key opens cluster mailboxes for an entire zip code, averaging about 9,700 mail recipients per area.

The USPS accepted the findings of the audit, agreeing to implement eight specific recommendations to solve the problem.

But another investigation completed last October by the US Postal Inspection Service, or USPIS, revealed more problems with internal thefts by postal employees themselves “due to a lack of a nationwide policy restricting personal belongings on the workroom floor, elevated supervisor and manager vacancy rates, and no dedicated periodic mail theft awareness employee training.” 

Home owners and politicians agree nothing gets done

Everyone agrees that cluster mailbox break-ins have continued for years as if nothing can be done about it.

“This has been going on in epidemic proportions for the last few years,” said Representative Bera.

Councilwoman Kaplan also stated that it was the first issue she brought up with Representative Bera when she was elected in December of 2022.

Councilmember Budge went even further, stressing, “This is such a long time problem, it has been going on for at least 25 years when we were first mandated to put these mailboxes in our neighborhood.”

Natomas has more than 35 home owner associations or HOAs. Jonathan Burke, who represents the North Natomas Home Owners Association Security Alliance, insists that neither local law enforcement nor the federal USPS will respond to Natomas cluster mailbox break-ins in-progress no matter how quickly they are provided with video evidence.

“In simplistic terms, our struggle is to try to get our council member and police department to be open and honest and publicly admit that they are not dispatching officers to these self-described ‘high priority’ crimes,” said Burke.

Are local police response priorities to blame?

Officer Anthony D. Gamble of the Sacramento Police Department addressed the accusation about not responding to mail theft, which is both a federal crime and a state crime under California Penal Code 530.5(e).

“Due to our policies, staffing levels, volume of calls, etc., there are a number of reasons why we wouldn’t respond to certain report calls that are not in progress,” Gamble explained. “We just don’t have the staffing levels to respond to every call that comes into our dispatch center, which is why we have online reporting options available to our community.”

Gamble gave the News & Review two specific examples of when Sac PD might get involved:”

“One: The first is that ‘in-progress’ I mentioned. Neighbor calls in says I see these people breaking into mailboxes. Gives a vehicle and suspect description. Our officers respond out, locate the vehicle or suspects, and then we begin an investigation on whether any state laws have been violated (i.e. possession of burglary tools, probation violation, vandalism, etc.)”

“Two. The second that commonly happens is an officer stops a vehicle for a reason. During the investigation, they locate a bunch of mail in the vehicle. If those victims who had their mail stolen reported it, in theory officers could arrest the suspect for possession of stolen property and refer the information to the United States Postal Inspector’s Office for further follow up.”

Officer Gamble repeated that local law enforcement units are “not the primary investigators of mail theft,” even though it is a state crime too. He maintained that enforcement is a USPS responsibility.

Are electronic locks a possible answer?

The audit mentioned the installation of keyless electronic locks, or eLocks, which can be reset anytime using different entry codes. These new locks are part of Project Safe Delivery, launched in May of 2023 to combat the rise of mail thefts.

But the audit’s wording is confusing by including Sacramento for such installations, saying as of last September, the USPS installed high security cluster boxes and eLocks across the country, “to include 141 high security cluster boxes and 141 eLocks in the Sacramento, CA, area.”

Did the audit say eLocks were actually installed or merely intended to be?   

“In previous meetings with USPS /USPIS, they did not reveal that the eLocks were installed in the Sacramento area,” said Michael Mashburn, Chairman of the Natomas Park Safety Committee.

Neither could News & Review get the USPS to confirm.

“The best way to get that information is to submit a Freedom of Information Act request for the exact locations,” suggested Meiko S. Patton, an AI communications specialist with the USPS.

Councilmember Kaplan’s office pointed to Mashburn’s communication with the USPIS.

“They’re just waiting to get them,” said Chief of Staff Misty Alafranji. “They are on back order nationwide.” 

But Mashburn didn’t know if the new locks would be electronic or merely modifications of the arrow-key locks currently used.

“They did not specifically state they would be electronic locks,” Mashburn acknowledged. “I’m trying to find out more about the plan but they haven’t told us anything more.”

What do the politicians say?

“I was shocked at some of the findings in that audit, particularly around the arrow keys that are master keys, how many of them were missing or unaccountable,” said Representative Bera.  “The three post offices have all agreed to the Inspector General’s findings. They have until July to fix them.”

News & Review asked Bera if he would share the audit’s results with Representative Doug La Malfa (R), who represents cities north of Sacramento, including Redding and Chico where break-ins also continue. Bera’s communications director, Rachel Tochterman, confirmed that the audit results had so far been sent to La Malfa.

Rancho Cordova Councilmember Budge also sees this as a USPS problem.

“The Congressman really emphasized the fact that this is an issue created by a federal organization and that it needs to be solved at the federal level,” Budge said. “It is really quite clear that nothing we do at the local level has made a difference.”

Kaplan echoed that.

“If Natomas wants answers, that’s the answer,” the councilwoman agreed. “Our postal service is failing us.”

She added, “Together we have to hold the postal inspector and the postal service accountable because rules went into place a year and a half ago that they failed to implement. So, I am here to tell you that together, we are going to push to hold them accountable.”

Other than a promise to share the audit with others, no new action items were announced or proposed at the press conference. Can the home owners, law enforcement, politicians and the postal service get on the same page to solve this problem?

Since Representative Bera gave the USPS until July to find answers, the News & Review will also revisit this issue in July to ask everyone involved what has been accomplished.