“If you are paying bills by mail and have utilized the blue boxes in the past, we encourage you to begin delivering your outgoing mail to the drop off stations inside the post office,” the Beavercreek Police Department said in a press release Tuesday.
Mail theft has been an ongoing problem in several Dayton-area communities. In 2022, at least seven different post office mailboxes in Beavercreek, Dayton, Kettering and the Centerville/Washington Twp. area were all stolen from, amounting to tens of thousands of dollars in stolen checks.
“This is an ongoing problem, and several people in various jurisdictions have been arrested,” Beavercreek police said in a Twitter post. “There appears to be a large group of people involved in this operation, including some from out of state.”
The rate of mail theft ebbs and flows, said Beavercreek Police Captain and public information officer Shawn Sumner, as perpetrators move around, victimizing different cities.
It’s “not unusual,” Sumner said, for Beavercreek to get between two and three mail theft complaints in a week — and when it spikes, to get one every day.
Police said the amount stolen on Dec. 22 has yet to be determined, and the incident is still under investigation.
The city is working closely with other jurisdictions like Kettering police, and has referred several cases to the Postal Service, Sumner said.
The Beavercreek Police Department would like to make residents aware of an ongoing issue involving blue collection boxes outside of local post offices. Our department has received numerous reports of mail theft involving these outdoor mailboxes.
— Beavercreek PD (@beavercreekohpd) January 3, 2023
Kettering police also urged residents not to use the outdoor mailboxes last month after more than a half-dozen reports of drop box thefts outside post offices since Thanksgiving. Five people were arrested in connection to mail thefts on Dec. 15 following a theft at the collection boxes outside the post office at 1740 E. Stroop Road.
Investigators recovered hundreds of items, but it wasn’t clear how much mail was stolen, said Tyler Johnson, Kettering police patrolman and public information officer.
“The people committing these offenses are stealing everything in the box. They will steal anything of value (checks, gift cards and cash) and the rest is just thrown in the trash or otherwise disposed of,” Johnson said in December.
In the last year and a half, thefts have also been reported in Trotwood, Oakwood, Dayton, Riverside and and the Centerville/Washington Twp. area. In September, two postal workers were robbed at gunpoint within 15 minutes of each other in Dayton and Trotwood. In both cases the robber reportedly demanded the letter carrier’s “arrow key,” which is a universal key that unlocks the blue collection boxes.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Beavercreek Police Department by calling 937-426-1225.
About the Authors
