RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Mail collection boxes owned by the U.S. Postal Service have been tampered with outside six post offices in central Virginia.
Michael Romano, a U.S. Postal Service inspector, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Monday that it appears that mail was taken from the blue collection boxes. However, neither the U.S. Postal Service nor the Virginia Department of Elections could confirm if any election mail was stolen.
Virginia is in the midst of early voting. People who may have dropped off mail at the locations in the Richmond area between 3 a.m. Saturday and early Monday morning have been asked to call the U.S. Postal Inspection Service at 877-876-2455 to report a potential mail theft case.
In a statement, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said it “must rely on the reports of potential mail theft victims to identify any items taken following the vandalism.”
Mail theft is uncommon, “but these are crimes of opportunity and this does occur,” Romano said. “Postal inspectors need to engage immediately and start conducting an aggressive investigation.”
Mail theft is a federal felony, Romano said.
In an email to The Associated Press, Romano declined to comment further on the investigation and deferred questions to the postal service’s national public information officer.
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