A set of rural mailboxes was broken into over the weekend, doing damage to three dozen locked cubicles and no way of knowing what mail was taken.
So far police can only confirm the vandalism to the Canada Post mail stations.
"Ours was already empty because we got the mail on Friday afternoon and from now on we will be doing that every day, we won't be leaving it for a couple of days," said one of the victims, Karl Hirschhofer.
Anick Losier, spokesperson for Canada Post, said "We are not immune, unfortunately, to criminal activity. We are seeing some of these break-ins but it is not a lot, but we try to stay ahead of the criminal curve and put our best foot forward to prevent these things. But it is not
perfect."
A new anti-pry fixture has been added to many community mail boxes in Canada but not the two sites hit in this incident, both on Chief Lake Road. One was near the intersection of Wild Rose Road and the other near the junction of
Inglewood Road.
Hirschhofer said the boxes were
surprisingly vulnerable.
"Once I saw them broken, I had the mechanical part in my hand and I couldn't believe how flimsy they were. It would only take a screwdriver to pop it, you wouldn't need a crowbar. It's cheesy pot metal," he said.
He was also critical of Canada Post's lack of communication with those affected. He happened to be at the set of boxes when the mail carrier came by, so she told him how to go down to the main post office to apply for a new key for the replacement locks being installed.
Once he went to the post office, though, he reported the clerks being uninformed about the incident and unwilling to help him unless he had a paid bill in hand to confirm his identity.
"It felt like I was the villain, and all these other people with broken boxes like me live way up the Hart. They won't know how to deal with this at all. I'm not happy."
Losier said Canada Post would be in contact with the victims by mail, and there would also be a private investigation on top of whatever the police are doing.
"Whenever one of these incidents happens, we have a team of investigators, many of them former police, and they look into the incident," she said. "They take the theft of mail very seriously."
Anyone who believes an item was taken is instructed to contact the sender and confirm if a bill, cheque or other correspondence was indeed mailed out. If so, the victim is asked to them let Canada Post know of this by calling
1-800-267-1177.
"It's a federal offense. We should make people aware of this happening. Identity theft is a huge concern," said Hirschhofer.
"If there's a credit card bill in there, they'd find out who you are and all your credit card details. Maybe you've got a cheque in there they could grab."
Douglass confirmed that identity theft is the chief concern, but long before the technologically advanced modern age, interference with mail was made a hefty crime.
"Theft of mail is its own charge and it is an indictable offense," Douglass
explained.
"Most offenses we deal with are hybrids, where Crown can choose to proceed as a summary offense or an indictable offense, depending on the situation. In this case, there is no choice, it is automatically indictable, which is the more severe of the two."
There was a scattering of mail left behind in the broken boxes, said Douglass, and rather than leave that exposed, the investigating officer delivered it all to the corresponding homes.
