Push to combat Bay Area mail theft gets attention at federal level

Members of a South Bay community say they've been repeatedly hit by mail theft thieves and are desperate for solutions.

Neighbor's surveillance video from a South San Jose condo complex shows a cluster of community mailboxes being opened wide with a master key, not by one of the homeowners or a postal worker, but by thieves.

"You can see the guy actually opening it right here, opening it with a key and you can tell because he's opening this specific slot here that uses the master key," said John Young who shared the video.

Law enforcement says that thieves often times get those master keys from postal workers who have been robbed.

Last year in California, 61% of statewide postal worker robberies happened in the Bay Area.

MORE: Thieves targeting Bay Area mail carriers to steal keys, police say

"Mail theft is a serious crime that frequently results in identity theft, check fraud, and other financial crimes," said Santa Clara County undersheriff Ken Binder.

Young said he's had financial documents stolen; his neighbors have also experienced loss of medication or hundreds of dollar's worth of gift cards sent to family members.

The neighbors say that USPS has changed the locks to the cluster box but the break-ins with a key keep repeating.

Law enforcement says cluster mailboxes are a target for thieves who often choose them instead of a series of individual boxes.

Young says the neighbors have asked the USPS for individual mailboxes on their garages that they'd be willing to pay for.

MORE: 2 Bay Area cities had most postal robberies in California in 2023, data shows

"But they're not even willing to entertain it," Young said.

So they went to their local city Councilmember, Domingo Candelas, and eventually got the attention of Congressman Jimmy Panetta.

Last month, Panetta helped introduce a bipartisan bill called the Mail Theft Act. It aims to develop cross coordination to combat mail theft.

"Make sure that federal government and the U.S. Attorneys, and the DOJ and the USPS actually all coordinate at the federal level, but also at the with the local level as well," Panetta said of the bill.

On top of that, Panetta and the neighbors have pointed to electronic locking mechanisms on cluster mailboxes.

MORE: Feds offer $150K reward for info leading to arrest of suspects who attack Bay Area postal workers

A more secure option USPS said -- it's already using on blue collection boxes.

Panetta said he's also been part of legislation to appropriate funds to the USPS for that.

While Panetta has public support from the Santa Clara Sheriff's Office and San Jose Police Department, the neighbors say they finally have hope.

"There was no pathway through the forest before, now there is so that's something, Young said. "That's a huge something."

ABC7 News reached out to the U.S. Postal Service about the claims from neighbors and response to Panetta's bill, a division postal inspector said they are not prepared to make a comment yet.

Right now, the Mail Theft Act is under the oversight committee and waiting to get a hearing.