USPS Mail Theft

[gade11]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Pennsylvania

Just curious as to the type of attorney who would handle a case against a mail carrier who has potentially stolen a letter?

A letter was sent Priority USPS One Day mail and was scanned as being delivered. The family the letter was sent to never received it. It's believed the carrier felt the envelope which felt like it has a large amount of cash inside and simply took it! The letter actually contained lottery tickets.

How would a case like this happen? Lie detector test for the carrier? The street this was delivered on is rural and there are acres between homes. It has been stated the carrier couldn't recall scanning this piece of mail that day. Kind of hard to believe on such a rural street! How many homes (six total homes) on that street that day received mail that needed scanned!?

A claim was filed with USPS which was of course denied as tracking showed delivered. It is honestly believed the carrier stole the letter due to the reasons above.

Can anything be done legally?

 

[Zigner]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Pennsylvania

Just curious as to the type of attorney who would handle a case against a mail carrier who has potentially stolen a letter?

A letter was sent Priority USPS One Day mail and was scanned as being delivered. The family the letter was sent to never received it. It's believed the carrier felt the envelope which felt like it has a large amount of cash inside and simply took it! The letter actually contained lottery tickets.

How would a case like this happen? Lie detector test for the carrier? The street this was delivered on is rural and there are acres between homes. It has been stated the carrier couldn't recall scanning this piece of mail that day. Kind of hard to believe on such a rural street! How many homes (six total homes) on that street that day received mail that needed scanned!?

A claim was filed with USPS which was of course denied as tracking showed delivered. It is honestly believed the carrier stole the letter due to the reasons above.

Can anything be done legally?

You have no proof of anything...

 

[gade11]

So what you're saying is we need to handle this ourselves and take the law into our own hands? I'm sure this carrier can be made, one way or the other, to spill the beans if she did steal it!

Not a problem, thank you!

 

[Zigner]

So what you're saying is we need to handle this ourselves and take the law into our own hands? I'm sure this carrier can be made, one way or the other, to spill the beans if she did steal it!

Not a problem, thank you!

Ahh, the old torture him until he confesses ploy. Nice.

 

[FlyingRon]

Did you file a lost or stolen male report with the USPS? You should have done that immediately upon noticing the discrepancy.

https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/investigations/MailFraud/fraudschemes/mailtheft/ReportMailTheft.aspx

Nobody said "take the law into your own hands."

They said you are jumping to conclusions that it was the carrier who stole the package. Absent a specific requirement for a signature based on the handling options on the package, the carrier just scans as delivered and leaves the package. It's quite possible it disappeared by someone else's hands or more commonly was just plain misdelivered to someone else.

 

[justalayman]

Did you file a lost or stolen male report with the USPS? You should have done that immediately upon noticing the discrepancy.

https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/investigations/MailFraud/fraudschemes/mailtheft/ReportMailTheft.aspx

Do you report a lost or stolen female to the same department?

 

[Zigner]

Did you file a lost or stolen male report with the USPS? You should have done that immediately upon noticing the discrepancy.

I'm thinking yes, since the OP specifically stated it

A claim was filed with USPS which was of course denied as tracking showed delivered. It is honestly believed the carrier stole the letter due to the reasons above.

 

[CdwJava]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Pennsylvania

Just curious as to the type of attorney who would handle a case against a mail carrier who has potentially stolen a letter?

A letter was sent Priority USPS One Day mail and was scanned as being delivered. The family the letter was sent to never received it. It's believed the carrier felt the envelope which felt like it has a large amount of cash inside and simply took it! The letter actually contained lottery tickets.

How would a case like this happen? Lie detector test for the carrier? The street this was delivered on is rural and there are acres between homes. It has been stated the carrier couldn't recall scanning this piece of mail that day. Kind of hard to believe on such a rural street! How many homes (six total homes) on that street that day received mail that needed scanned!?

A claim was filed with USPS which was of course denied as tracking showed delivered. It is honestly believed the carrier stole the letter due to the reasons above.

Can anything be done legally?

It will cost you many thousands of dollars to sue the USPS. You might want to consider whether it is worth the money and the time (could be a couple of years or more) to be spent on such an endeavor before you actually go forward with it. There are other possibilities as to what happened to the letter besides the carrier stealing it. Have you spoken to law enforcement about the theft?

 

[tranquility]

There is a specific statute preventing suing the USPS over something like this. The only hope is through administrative options.

 

[CdwJava]

That sorta limits the remedies, then.

 

[tranquility]

That sorta limits the remedies, then.

It certainly does. See also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolan_v._United_States_Postal_Service