A Southern California woman fed up with her packages getting stolen out of her post office box sent an Apple AirTag to the address and cleverly tracked down the suspected thief, police said.
The woman had had several items stolen from her mailbox at the Los Alamos Post Office already when she thought of the idea, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday. Apple’s $29 AirTags have become popular items since their 2021 release, helping users keep tabs on the location of anything from their lost keys to wallets and luggage.
On Monday morning, sheriff’s deputies were called to the post office where the woman told officials her mail had been stolen again — including the package with the AirTag.
Postal Inspectors are Federal Law enforcement, and while you could argue that their budget hasn’t kept up with inflation, it hasn’t been cut either.
Point is, while I’ll always support the need for the US Post Office, and support employees who work in any capacity to deliver mail, I can’t be as charitable with the USPIS when they have the manpower to spare for warrantless surveillance programs.
When I was a carrier, I had a business road on my route, all the mailboxes were at the curb for every business. On two or three separate occasions, I’d get to the last box and it looked rougher than it did the previous day. Business owner came out and told me the box had been broken into again, along with several others on the road, and wanted to know what we could/would do about it.
I called my postmaster and explained and asked if USPIS would be getting involved (as the business owner also asked). I was told no, they don’t get involved in those sorts of things, the owner would just have to file a report with the police, and we’d stop delivering on Saturdays since none of the businesses would be open.
I never got a further explanation than that, so I couldn’t say why USPIS doesn’t get involved, but they don’t seem to anymore. 🤷♀️
I understand they wouldn’t get involved in regular local mail mailbox crime, but this was inside of a US Post Office.
That has to be the easiest layup possible a USPIS agent to get a case closure off from, but now I’m really curious about what jurisdiction local police or sheriff’s deputies even have when dealing with crimes that occur inside of the post office, which I’m fairly certain are federal buildings.
I always thought that crimes that occur on federal property, or land, are automatically assigned to federal law enforcement.