Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 5, 1995 TAG: 9501050061
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
If you mailed their cards Dec. 22 from a street collection box in Southwest or Southeast Roanoke, Vinton or Franklin County near Smith Mountain Lake, then the U.S. Postal Inspection Service may have an answer.
Postal Inspector Kevin Boyle reports that 14 street collection mailboxes were "attacked" and robbed that night. Mail deposited after 5 p.m. never made it to the post office.
Though thefts from collection mailboxes are routine in cities such as New York and Chicago, Boyle said it's rare in Virginia.
"I've been here for five years, and this is the first time that we've had collection boxes attacked," said Boyle, who also has worked as a postal inspector in Norfolk and Washington, D.C.
The Hollins Post Office on Williamson Road was broken into the same night, and Boyle said the Postal Service believes the incidents are connected.
The Postal Inspection Service is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of anyone connected to the mail theft.
Boyle said all 14 of the collection boxes - most of which were in Southwest Roanoke - were pried open between 5 p.m. Dec. 22 and about 10 a.m. the next day.
The inspector thinks the thieves picked Dec. 22 because of the high volume of Christmas mail - much of which contains cash - that the post office would be handling that day.
A small portion of the stolen mail was recovered in the Roanoke River, and many of those letters contained checks.
"That makes me want to believe that they were looking ... mainly for cash," Boyle said.
The Postal Service asks that anyone with information about the break-ins call the Postal Inspection Service at 985-8755.
by CNB