WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service today revealed two additions to the 2020 Stamp Program: Big Bend and Grand Island Ice Caves. Both stamps will be released on Saturday Jan. 18, 2020. There will be no national first-day-of-issue ceremony for these stamps. Details on obtaining first-day-of-issue cancellations will be announced in a future Postal Bulletin issue.

These stamps are a convenient way for customers to pay for Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express Flat Rate shipping with a single stamp. Priority Mail is a fast domestic service that includes flat rate shipping in one, two or three business days based on where your package starts and where it’s being sent. Priority Mail Express is the fastest domestic service, with limited exceptions; available 365 days a year, with a money-back guarantee and delivery shipping to most U.S. addresses, including PO Boxes.

Customers may purchase stamps and other philatelic products through The Postal Store at usps.com/shop, by calling 800-STAMP24 (800-782-6724), by mail through USA Philatelic, or at Post Office locations nationwide.

Information on ordering first-day-of-issue postmarks and covers is at usps.com/shop.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

THURSTON COUNTY, Wash. — An undercover operation in the South Sound aims to capture porch pirates this holiday season.

Postal inspectors are using bait boxes to stop thieves in their tracks by luring them in with the very boxes they’re out to steal.

Bait boxes are designed to look like any other packages. The difference is, officers are tracking the bait boxes, and they know the second someone grabs one.

“If you take them, you’re going to get arrested by us,” said John Wiegand, U.S. postal inspector. More at KIRO

CHICAGO (Updated) — A mail truck stolen Tuesday in Lincoln Park was recovered two days later on the West Side with all of its packages apparently intact.

A truck belonging to the United States Postal Service was found abandoned about 3:45 p.m. Thursday in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, according to Sylvia Carrier, spokesperson for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

“There was no damage to the vehicle, and it doesn’t appear that any packages are missing,” Carrier said. She said she could not disclose exactly where the truck was found due to an ongoing search for the man who stole it. ABC Chicago

‘I filled up a box full of dog poop’: Portland porch pirate gets a stinky surprise

The holidays are here and so too are thieves who’ll waste no time snatching up packages from doorsteps.

The porch pirate problem is one Matt Coats has become familiar with since moving to Southeast Portland a few years ago.

“I think the worst part about porch piracy is just feeling so violated. To have somebody come up into your space and take something that’s yours,” Coats said.

However, this isn’t your typical, caught-on-security-camera, porch-pirate story. This one includes some sweet, stinky revenge.

“I had something disappear off the porch and it was really frustrating,” Coats said. “I figured it would probably happen again. So, I filled up a box full of dog poop.”

That’s right, this is a story of a porch pirate, a pooch named Marlo, and poop.

Coats was sick of thieves helping themselves to his and his neighbors’ deliveries. So he hatched a plan to get them back with a bait package.

He packed an REI box with his dog Marlo’s droppings, left it on the porch and waited for an unsuspecting porch pirate to take the bait.

“I thought, ‘Well, let’s see how long it takes,'” he said.

It only took three days for a porch pirate to strike and Coats caught the crook on security camera. KGW News

The former NASA engineer-turned-YouTube star — who earned viral acclaim last year with his glitter bomb booby trap for doorstep delivery thieves — has made a festive comeback, just in time for season’s gift-giving spike.

Mark Rober spent nearly a year designing a new and improved version of his “Home Alone”-inspired revenge trap in a bid to catch some of the numerous doorstep thieves who continue to dog the U.S. postal system by stealing packages from outside shoppers’ homes.

This skimmer, recently discovered attached to a payment device at a Gateway District retail site, is part of a Postal Inspection Service investigation.

USPS News Link – 12/17/19 – The Postal Service wants employees to keep an eye out for skimmers — small, hard-to-detect devices that fraudsters place over credit card readers to steal information.

USPS recently discovered a skimmer attached to a payment device at a retail site in Great Lakes Area’s Gateway District. The skimmer was placed on top of the PIN pad and card reader, making it difficult to detect.

The Postal Inspection Service is investigating the incident.

To prevent tampering with postal equipment, employees are required to perform and log payment device inspections daily.

If a customer experiences difficulty inserting a chip card into a machine — for example, if the customer must use more force than usual — the employee should inspect the device for a skimmer or evidence of other tampering.

Employees who find a skimmer or evidence of tampering should call the Postal Inspection Service at 877-876-2455. Don’t use the device to process any customer payments or allow anyone — including the customer or another employee — to touch the device until the Inspection Service has provided instructions.

Additionally, employees must complete the Protecting Payment Cardholder Industry (PCI): Retail training course through the HERO learning portal before the Jan. 20 deadline.

Employees who miss the deadline will have their access to retail systems and applications revoked. New employees must complete the training within 35 days of their hiring date.

The Retail and Customer Service Operations Blue page has the Standard Work Instructions on performing daily payment device inspections, as well as additional documentation on payment terminal management.

What:

Made of Hearts, the latest stamp in the U.S. Postal Service’s Love series, will be issued next month in time for Valentine’s Day. The Forever stamp features horizontal lines of red and pink hearts on a white background.

The first-day-of-issue event for the Made of Hearts Forever stamp is free and open to the public. News of the stamp is being shared with the hashtag #LoveStamps.

Who:

David E. Williams, chief operating officer and executive vice president, U.S. Postal Service

When:

Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020, at 11 a.m. CST

Where:

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
501 St Jude Place
Memphis, TN 38105

RSVP:

Dedication ceremony attendees are encouraged to RSVP at usps.com/lovestamps.

Background:

These new stamps from the U.S. Postal Service will deliver your message in style. Hearts are used to signify more than romantic or eternal love. Hearts are universally understood to symbolize devotion, affection and love.

While issued for use at Valentine’s Day, these stamps need no special holiday. This stamp is just right for thank-you notes, get well cards or any occasion when love is the perfect message.

Customers may purchase stamps and other philatelic products through The Postal Store at usps.com/shop, by calling 800-STAMP24 (800-782-6724), by mail through USA Philatelic or at Post Office locations nationwide.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

Carroll County Man Facing Federal Indictment for Allegedly Overcharging the U.S. Postal Service Under His Company’s Contract to Perform Maintenance and Repair Services at Postal Service Facilities

SEATTLE – Postal inspectors need your help finding the man who drove away with a mail truck in West Seattle right before Christmas.

That truck was located just a few blocks away, but a couple hundred pieces of mail were missing before authorities arrived. Surveillance video shows a man in a black hoodie with an oversized jean jacket and light-colored pants somehow getting inside a locked USPS mail truck.

This happened a day before Christmas Eve just after noon in West Seattle’s Seaview neighborhood. Neighbors are just as frustrated for their postal workers.

“It just makes me hugely sad,” said Rebecca Hoch, who lives in the area. “We have a really great crew in this neighborhood. They’re all really personable.” More at Q 13 Fox

CHICAGO (CBS) — A South Side postal worker likely saved some people’s Christmases when he took down two suspected package thieves.

And his quick actions were all caught on camera. CBS 2’s Steven Graves has the video you’ll see only on CBS 2.

The cameras first catch two people sprinting near the corner of 81st and South Princeton in Chatham last Monday. Their target: A U.S. Postal Service worker’s cart full of packages.

It could have been a quick, swift theft. But as the video shows, three people with the debris surrounding them. They are the two suspects. One standing to the side, the other being tightly gripped by the postal worker.

It went on for several minutes.

People walk around and cars pull up. The mailman is even seen being dragged and still does not let go.

At one point, one suspect goes to the home that’s recording the surveillance video to ask for help.

“The guy was I guess just walking around trying to help get the mailman off of his brother,” said the resident who did not want to be identified.

He did not let go for six minutes, until police arrived. One of the suspects caught with hands over head.

The mailman was left bruised and battered. More at CBS Chicago

NORTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, Fla. – A United States Postal worker defended herself from a man who jumped into her truck, laid across her lap and started making demands.

The worker was delivering mail around 11 a.m. on Christmas Eve at the intersection of N.W. 27th Avenue and 43rd Terrace. While her truck was stopped, she says a man jumped into the open door of her vehicle.

She told police that the man, later identified as 45-year-old Sosthene Louis, laid his body across her lap while she was stopped and in the driver’s seat. He then yelled “Give me my s–t.” She was able to push Louis off of her and out of the vehicle. She told police she then shut the mail truck’s door.

According to police, Louis then jumped onto the front of the mail truck and grabbed the driver’s side windshield wiper. Video shows him pulling off the wiper, then rolling off the truck and leaving the scene. Police say he then returned and was spotted across the street from where the incident happened. When police tried to speak with him, Louis allegedly took off. Local 10 News

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) – A Phoenix woman is facing nearly a dozen felony charges of fraud, forgery, and burglary after allegedly stealing mail from at least six people and giving her landlord a forged postal money order. Police arrested Ashley Renee Sampeer on Monday, Dec. 23, and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office filed charges against her on Thursday.

According to court documents, a witness called the police Monday to report a theft in the area of 20th Street and Missouri Avenue, which is between Camelback and Bethany Home roads. The witness said they saw the occupants of a gray Nissan Altima “grabbing packages from mailboxes.” Police caught up with the vehicle later. They said Sampeer, 30, was the driver. More at AZ Family

A man has been making his way around the South Side, wanted in connection with stealing packages and mail on at least four different blocks, U.S. Postal Inspection Service officials say. CBS 2’s Tim McNicholas reports. CBS Chicago

Fort Smith, Arkansas – Duane (DAK) Kees, United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas and Thomas Noyes, Inspector in Charge of the U. S. Postal Inspection Service’s Fort Worth Division, announced today that Joshua Wayne Williams was arraigned yesterday on federal charges. A federal grand jury in the Western District of Arkansas indicted Williams on four counts of Theft of Mail last month.

According to the Indictment, in October 2019, the Paris, Arkansas, Postmaster contacted a U.S. Postal Inspector and explained that several customers had complained about their greeting cards being stolen.

It was later learned that Williams was the driver on the route and that he had been working for Moore US Mail Contractors Incorporated delivering mail for the US Postal Service.

On October 30, 2019, Postal Inspectors conducted an undercover operation and were able to identify Williams as being the individual responsible for the mail theft.

A vehicle stop was conducted and Williams was placed under arrest for mail theft.

Duane (DAK) Kees, the United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas stated, “I applaud the hard work of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and their efforts to combat and prevent those in our society that would take advantage of this holiday season in order to prey upon the innocent.”

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Fort Worth Division Inspector in Charge Thomas Noyes stated, “With the upcoming holidays, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service is committed to protecting our employees, customers, and the nation’s mail system from criminal attacks.  We work to ensure America’s confidence in the U.S. Mail by enforcing over 200 federal laws in investigations of crimes that may adversely affect postal customers or the fraudulent use of the U.S. Mail.  We will investigate any violation of the American public’s trust in the mail system and bring those responsible to justice.  We encourage the public to visit our website, www.uspis.gov, to learn how best to protect themselves and how to report mail related crimes.  We will continue to work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Logan County Sheriff’s Office and our federal and local law enforcement partners in the pursuit of justice.”

United States Magistrate Judge Mark E. Ford presided over Williams’s arraignment yesterday.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Logan County Sheriff’s Department is conducting the investigation and Assistant United States Attorneys Claude Hawkins and Kyra Jenner are prosecuting the case for the United States.

An Indictment is merely an accusation.  An arrest warrant represents a finding of probable cause.  A person is presumed innocent unless or until he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service today revealed two additions to the 2020 stamp program: Presorted Star, a convenient stamp for large-volume mailers, and Chrysanthemum (Global), an international rate stamp.

Customers may purchase stamps and other philatelic products through The Postal Store at usps.com/shop, by calling 800-STAMP24 (800-782-6724), by mail through USA Philatelic, or at Post Office locations nationwide.

Information on ordering first-day-of-issue postmarks and covers is at usps.com/shop.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.

LOS ANGELES (KABC) — The U.S. Postal Service is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of four suspects who robbed a letter carrier in South Los Angeles.

The crime happened Dec. 4 on the 1100 block of West 62nd Street.

The Postal Service released surveillance pictures of three of the suspects and the getaway car. ABC Los Angeles

CHICAGO (CBS) — A CBS 2 investigation.

Thieves in Chicago after private mail. There are pictures of two of them at work. CBS 2 learned how they’re getting through locked doors.

CBS 2’s Marissa Parra explains why the postal service is so concerned about these thefts.

Disturbing video inside a South Loop apartment shows an unnerving trend: Thieves in Chicago with a key that has access to an unknown number of apartment buildings and all the mail inside them.

It’s why postal carrier Lavone Merritt keeps her guard up and her hood down.

“I mean you’re walking down the street to keep the wind out your face, but you still have to be able to see,” Merritt said.

She knows how many eyes are on one small key.

“It’s always connected to me. It’s always hooked to me. I don’t let it out of my sight,” Merritt said.

Inside a USPS cart, little pieces of paper with big secrets. Bank statements, love letters, Social Security and medical information. Things you don’t want strangers to look through.

But that’s exactly what’s happening in the Chicago area. Surveillance video from days ago in the South Loop showed two guys with their own key. Using it not just to get into an apartment building, but also opening up the entire mailbox unit inside and scavenging through the private lives of the people who live there. More at CBS Chicago

DOJ – John H. Durham, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that CAREEMA LEWIS, 33, of Waterbury, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Victor A. Bolden in Bridgeport to three years of probation for stealing mail while employed by the U.S. Postal Service. Judge Bolden ordered Lewis to perform 100 hours of community service while she is on probation.

According to court documents and statements made in court, between September 2018 and January 2019, while she was employed as a postal worker at the U.S. Post Office in Plymouth, Lewis stole numerous pieces of mail, specifically, greeting cards that contained gift cards or other items of value. When confronted by investigators in January 2019, Lewis admitted that she stole “between 20 and 50” gift cards from the mail. Lewis subsequently surrendered approximately 10 gift cards that she had stolen from greeting cards, and approximately 17 pieces of stolen mail that she had in her vehicle and her purse.

On September 26, 2019, Lewis pleaded guilty to one count of theft of mail by a postal employee.

Restitution will be determined after additional court proceedings.

This matter was investigated by the U.S. Postal Service Office of the Inspector General and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret M. Donovan.

Individuals who believe they are a victim of mail theft may file a complaint by calling 888-USPS-OIG or by clicking this link.

The envelope was supposed to contain Ashley Wolverton’s son’s expired passport, being sent back from the passport renewal office. The passport was there, along with a letter from the person who stole it.

“I start to read the letter,” Wolverton said. “My mouth got so big and I’m like, ‘What?'”

The letter begins “To Whoever You Are”, and explains that the writer stole Wolverton’s mail.

“You are lucky that today I checked your mailbox,” the letter reads. “When I saw ‘passport’ I damn near leaped with joy. Then when I opened it and saw your adorable lil’ man, my heart sank.”

The passport showed Wolverton’s son when he was only a few months old. That picture, the letter said, was enough to change the thief’s mind.

“I know, I know,” the letter continues, “you’re rolling your eyes at the criminal with a conscience.”

The writer explained to Wolverton that many people would be happy to have a child’s passport because they could steal the identity and probably not be caught until the child became an adult.

Instead, the letter warned Wolverton to be more careful with her mail.

“Please do not let mail like this be sent to your mailbox,” the letter read. “Get a PO Box.”  12 News via MSN