November 7, 2014 – Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) — Neighbors in a valley community are fed up with vandals who broke into their mailboxes. They want to know what it will take to prevent a repeat.
From the front, the box on Mission Ridge Drive, near U.S. 95 and Decatur Boulevard, looks perfectly fine.
“I opened the box and I saw sunlight right through it so then I went around to find out it was broken into,” said neighbor Angel Willer.
Neighbors said someone pried open the back of the box about two weeks ago.
“The whole thing was popped open both sides,” Willer said. “All boxes are empty.”
Two community mailboxes on the street were broken into. While it’s unclear if any mail was stolen, Willer believes she may be a victim.
“I’m more worried about identity theft than the holiday cards and all that other stuff that’s going on,” Willer said.
Fed up neighbors called Action News. They tell us the mailboxes have been vandalized in the past and they’re tired of going to the post office to retrieve their letters.
“You only wanna go down there every couple of days because the lines are so long,” Willer said.
Mailbox vandalism is nothing new to the area.
Action News called the local postal inspector’s office.
Postal inspector Vicki Lenard said mail theft tends to increase when the total volume of mail increases, especially around the holidays. The Postal Service has newer mailboxes that are more secure, but the agency can only afford to replace the boxes as needed, Lenard said. Once a box is compromised, the local post office holds the mail for security.
“Fix our mailboxes. How hard is it to get someone out here to fix it?” Willer asked.
Lenard said there are no official complaints about mail stolen from the boxes in question.
Action News learned through the postal inspector that the post office is aware of the broken boxes and there is a work order in to replace them, but it’s unclear when that will happen.