After a rash of apartment and condo building break-ins and mailbox thefts in Los Angeles, the U.S. Postal Service has begun replacing the master locks to those buildings and mailboxes.
Richard Maher, a spokesperson for the Postal Service, emailed WEHOville today to announce the replacement program. “With the tens of thousands of locks in service, this will be a huge undertaking and will be done in phases,” Maher said. “Working with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, areas for lock replacement will be targeted based upon recent incidents of theft and vandalism.”
Given that West Hollywood in recent months has suffered a number of such incidents, it may be among the areas that the Postal Service focuses on first. A WEHOville reader who lives outside of West Hollywood reported that a representative of the Postal Service said master locks were going to be replaced soon in buildings in the 90046 ZIP zone. That zone covers West Hollywood’s Center City and Eastside areas and extends into the Hollywood Hills.
The mailbox thefts are being carried out by people who either possess a mailbox master key or have a counterfeit master key. Those keys allow a mail delivery worker to gain access to an apartment or condo building and also to open the panel that covers the mailboxes in the building. Videos by apartment building security cameras have captured several instances where people have entered buildings in West Hollywood
Postal Service Says It Will Change Locks on Buildings Where Mail Has Been Stolen
I deliver mail in a nasty part of the city I work in, and if it isn’t some skank adult going through other peoples’ boxes, it’s their grimy slimy kids, and the parents stand there with their thumbs up their asses and do nothing, but they bitch if THEIR mail is stolen. Go figure, no honor among thieves.
So I’ve been on management’s case for years now trying to get NDCBU’s for several streets where the theft is its worst, and the cheap screws in District won’t spring for the new units. I guess it would take money from their bonus fund. Bottom line here is, unless it’s a problem of huge proportions where management has no choice but respond, they couldn’t possibly give a rat’s ass less about the safety and security of the mail.
They drill into new carriers that running is all important, checking pink cards, reading names in boxes we put in to help them, and properly handling undeliverable mail is discouraged.
I know this because CCA’s have told us this very thing, and I’ve heard other office’s carriers tell similar tales.
This all comes from POOMs, who get their orders from District, who get theirs from Area, and then Headquarters. Nobody in the chain of command apparently has any independent decision making authority.
That’s why they can be so obstinate about DOIS projections, and could care less about any factors outside their idiotic “formulas” that supposedly can predict a carrier’s office and street time with pinpoint accuracy.
Well, if you never carried mail, or did very little before your sucking up paid off and you got in management, quickly turning on your fellow carriers, you wouldn’t understand how weather, traffic, vehicle breakdowns, construction or other problems effect DOIS. And you wouldn’t care either, for most managers, although our supervisors are pretty good in our office, and we’re lucky to have them instead of some I know of, because far too many of you soon begin considering your craft as stupid, lazy, unreliable and untrustworthy. It’s an ego trip some management personnel do not deserve.
If they ever considered that the craft employees, at least a lot of us, are there by choice, electing to have a more stress free career, more free time and not have to be abused by higher ups day in and day out, it might make a difference. There are lots of us with degrees, talent, demonstrated by musicians, artists, writers, etc. who deliver mail by day and create wonderful work in their off time, do charity work, etc. I write music, love it, and maybe someday after retirement I might be able to sell some of it.
My point is, managers who are reading this: intelligence can be found anywhere, just like stupidity. I choose to carry mail because I have a disabled wife, don’t want to be forced to relocate, especially when I have just over a year to go, and don’t want the pressure and abuse you get. The extra money is not a fair trade as far as I’m concerned. Now if that sounds like a stupid person to you, then you truly do not belong in any position where you should deal with anybody else.
OH Lord, my God, The truth has been revealed, and now the cat is out of the bag. Rest assured there will be other bags opened and additional information is jump out uncover a sin sick shame going on in some places. Its a blessing the turmoil isn’t wide spread just sectioned off at best where the mindless, spineless, think tank training is sucked in and eventually spewed back into the mail system. Many of the remaining people in charge are there to do a good job and perform the tasks expected of them. Thanks for them.