Although Santa Clara police have struck a blow to the heart of a local mail theft ring, the head of the postal police union said the problem is worse than most people realize.
Santa Clara police have arrested a dozen suspects in connection with a mail theft ring, a significant victory. However, the arrests are just a piece of the puzzle.
Just after 4 a.m. Aug. 5, police responded to a call of mail theft on the 1900 block of Hillebrant Place in Santa Clara. Over the next week or so, a review of surveillance footage showed the suspect fleeing the scene in a black Lexus.
Santa Clara detectives, in coordination with San Jose police and the United States Postal Inspection Service, determined the suspect was part of a ring of mail thieves. Investigation revealed the suspects had been fraudulently renting two apartments.
Just after 7 a.m. on Aug. 14, police raided a multi-family home located at 680 Epic Way in San Jose, arresting eight suspects, according to arrest logs: Glenn Nguyen, 32, Paolo Bartido, 39, Lim Vo, 30, Sean Finn, 43, Christie Entac, 33, Vu Thi, 38 and Tiffany Terada, 42.
Less than two hours later, police closed in on the second criminal hive, located at Moreland Apartments, 550 Moreland Way in Santa Clara, arresting four more suspects: Raquel Tendencia, 34, Eun Chong, 34, Melizza Hufana, 43, Ngoai Nguyen, 42 and Dary Pech, 41.
Lt. Mike Crescini, with the Santa Clara Police Department, said during the San Jose bust several of the suspects attempted to flee, but police managed to arrest them “without incident.” Crescini would not comment whether the arrests were related to an incident at Boulevard Condominiums, simply writing that the investigation is “ongoing.”
A search of the apartments turned up a cache of contraband. Detectives recovered large amounts of stolen mail, mail keys, a mail carrier uniform, mail locks, narcotics packaged for sales, electronic gambling machines, body armor, notebooks containing personal information and suspected stolen property.
The suspected stolen property included IDs, checkbooks, passports, license plates, credit cards, and other documents belonging to dozens of victims.
Broader Perspective
Matthew Norfleet, a postal inspector with the San Francisco Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, said thieves are focusing on stealing mail more than ever. Keeping postal workers safe remains the postal service’s top priority, he added.
Although the arrests are a feather in the cap of local police, the problem is far from solved, Norfleet said. He urged residents to remain vigilant and to report any missing mail to police and postal inspectors.
“We don’t believe this is the only mail theft ring operating in the Bay Area,” Norfleet said. “It is a crime of opportunity. It is not a brilliant mastermind behind mail theft. This is a desperate attempt.”
In 2023, there were 6,729 reports of violent crime against postal workers — including burglaries, robberies, assaults and even homicide, according to the 2023 United States Postal Inspection report.
Robbery, often to steal arrow keys used to open mailboxes, alone has spiked since 2019, rising from 94 reported incidents to 628 in 2023. Meanwhile, robbery conviction rates have plummeted from 65% in 2019 to 15% in 2023.
Diminished Role
Frank Albergo, national president of the Postal Police Officers Association, said the trend is troubling. He has worked for the postal service for 30 years, and he has “never seen anything like this.”
“The Bay Area has an absolute postal crime wave on its hands. It just gets worse and worse and worse,” he said.
The United States Postal Service restricting postal police — a specialized force trained to combat mail theft — to post offices hasn’t helped, Albergo said. While he acknowledged that laying the mail-theft crime wave solely at the feet of benching the postal police is unfair, he said it “obviously hasn’t helped.”
Project Safe Delivery, the post office’s plan to combat mail theft, is “a bunch of smoke and mirrors,” Albergo said.
“The postal service seems to be obsessed with cutting labor costs, and it is not always done in the most intelligent way,” he said. “The inspection service has been caught with their pants down, and that is the problem. Thieves have realized it is an easy target.”
Until a 2020 federal ruling, Albergo said, postal police had sophisticated data equipment at their disposal, equipment that tracks postal carriers’ movement, generates crime maps and generally allows preventive policing.
Post office officials are talking out of both sides of its mouth when they claim it is prioritizing postal carriers’ safety while simultaneously “neutering” the postal police, he added.
Balancing Act
Norfleet said he couldn’t get into details of the diminished role of the postal police, calling it an “ongoing contract dispute.”
Whether the role of the postal police “conformed to the law and whether they were effective,” according to a statement from the post office, led the post office to “comprehensively curtail” the scope of postal police work. This was “necessary to protect individual [postal police officers] and the Postal Service more broadly from legal liability,” the statement reads.
The United States Postal Service employs a variety of tactics to curb mail theft, according to the statement. The Postal Inspection Service coordinates with local police, participates in violent crime task forces, employs prosecutors and police specializing in mail theft, deploys inspectors to mail-theft hotspots and makes use of technology to target cyber crimes.
After contacting police, anyone who discovers they have missing mail should contact postal inspectors at (877) 876-2455 or online at uspis.gov.
“[crimes] 2019, rising from 94 reported incidents to 628 in 2023. Meanwhile, robbery conviction rates have plummeted from 65% in 2019 to 15% in 2023…calling it an ongoing contract dispute.” Employee unions preventing safety and accountability, no surprise there.
RJ: Believe it or not, this time the blame falls on squarely on the employer, not labor. The postal police union is fighting for more work (i.e., arrest power so that postal police officers can protect letter carriers and prevent mail theft) while the Postal Service will not allow it. When it comes to the Postal Service—it’s a world turned upside down.
I want to understand this. The Postal Service pays for postal police officers, who were once equipped with technology to prevent mail theft. But the postal service decided that postal police should no longer stop mail theft – notwithstanding the fact that mail theft is getting “worse and worse and worse.” But the Postal Service still pays for postal police and the technology.
Do I have this right?
This is the dumbest thing that I’ve ever heard.
Typical government agency, can’t get out of its own way.
The Postal Inspection Service is a waste of money. The post office does not need its own law enforcement agency. I would have thought this was obvious. But it is not obvious to the banana-heads who run the post office who spend money like it’s going out of style. The post office has postal inspectors, postal police officers and special agents who work for the Inspector General and still my mail is stolen at least twice a week from the same mailbox. It seems that as soon as postal police were taken off the street the mail thieves went crazy. Postal inspectors are worthless and the Inspector General only investigates when employees steal mail. What a joke.