Mail Theft

Stealing or tampering with another person's mail is a serious crime. Although it may seem harmless to take an envelope out of another person's mailbox, mail theft comes with serious punishments in order to deter criminals. People send highly valuable goods, cash, and confidential personal information through the mail. Despite the ease of stealing mail, few people are ever charged with mail theft because of the harsh penalties involved. If mail theft was not taken seriously, more people would be afraid to send valuables through the mail, and mail theft would occur more often.

In the United States, it is illegal to take another person's mail from a postal truck, a collection box, an apartment mailbox panel, a mailing rack, or a neighborhood delivery or collection box. The United States Postal Service is a federal entity, and therefore, stealing or tampering with another person's mail is a federal crime. Mail theft and subsequent identity theft is the top white-collar crime reported in the U.S.

The law concerning mail theft is under Title 18 of the U.S. Code (Crimes and Criminal Procedure), Section 1702, "Obstruction of correspondence," and states:

"Whoever takes any letter, postal card, or package out of any post office or any authorized depository for mail matter, or from any letter or mail carrier, or which has been in any post office or authorized depository, or in the custody of any letter or mail carrier, before it has been delivered to the person to whom it was directed, with design to obstruct the correspondence, or to pry into the business or secrets of another, or opens, secretes, embezzles, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both."

Mail theft is not the only crime encountered by the United States Postal Service. Other illegal activities include:

Mail fraud: involves deceptive advertising or scams through the mail, or postage fraud

Identity theft: a person's confidential identifying information is stolen

Vandalism: it is illegal to vandalize a mail receptacle

Tampering: mail was handled in a purposely destructive manner

False change of address: in which a person provides deliberately misleading information about his or her place of residence or business

Unsolicited sexually oriented advertising: a person may request that no unsolicited sexually-explicit materials be delivered to his or her address, but a violation of this request is a crime

For more information about mail fraud, mail crimes, or other information regarding criminal activities, visit the website of the Appleton criminal lawyers of Kohler & Hart.

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