SAN ANTONIO – People in a Northwest Side neighborhood have an unusual request of the U. S. Postal Service: Stop delivering mail to their mailboxes.
The request is in response to a situation involving mail delivered to one cluster box in particular in the Woller Creek subdivision, which neighbors say has gone from bad to worse.
“It’s been broken a very long time, at least a year if not more. Multiple years,” said Clay Dugger, speaking on behalf of his 82-year-old mother, who lives in the neighborhood near Kyle Seale Parkway. “It’s my understanding that the postal service is not supposed to put mail in an unsecured, a broken box.”
Dugger says still, that’s what has been happening.
Every day, he says, letter carriers drop off mail in the cluster boxes, which have a back panel that has been pried open.
It’s a situation, Dugger says, that leaves people open to mail theft and other crime.
“How many opportunities of identity theft are here, not just with my family but with everybody in these boxes?” he asked. “It just needs to be addressed, and if we have to go to the post office and get their mail for three or four months, OK.”
In the middle of the interview with Dugger, a woman who lives in the neighborhood walked up, expecting to find an important letter in her mailbox.
Instead, the only thing she found there was a bill that it appears no one wanted to steal.
“It’s almost like if you leave your purse and they break in and your window’s broken. Are you going to leave your purse again? No. You learn. If it’s broken why put it back in there?” the neighbor said, explaining why she’s against mail being delivered to the broken boxes.
However, Don Disbennett, president of the homeowners association, said he doesn’t necessarily see a problem with mail being left there.
“Is it secure? Well‚ if you just walk by casually it looks OK, like it’s locked,” he said.
Disbenett says he makes a habit of retrieving his mail right away, every day, so thieves don’t have a chance to steal it.
KSAT 12 News called and emailed the postal service for an explanation.
A spokesperson sent a written response, saying in part that the mailboxes had been inspected by postal management who determined they could be secured properly.
The statement said therefore, mail delivery is continuing there.
However, when KSAT 12 News visited the neighborhood Friday morning, one of the two vandalized sections of the cluster box was wide open with mail easily accessible.
The spokesperson did not respond to additional questions about the seemingly compromised mail.
According to the postal service, repairing and replacing cluster boxes is the responsibility of HOAs.
Disbennett was not able to say when replacement of the vandalized mailboxes might occur.
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