Residents on Long Island are sounding the alarm over mail theft, after checks placed in mailboxes were stolen, altered and cashed. The accounts describe a problem that has left people afraid to use outdoor mailboxes at all, unsure of where they can safely send a check. For those affected, an everyday task has turned into a source of frustration and financial loss.
One resident described going to unusual lengths to protect a payment, only to be defrauded anyway. She even used a special security pen to prevent tampering, and they still changed the name on the check. Fed up, she questioned how anyone is now supposed to send mail safely, asking whether she should hand it to a person inside, since leaving it elsewhere felt unsafe.
The worry, as residents described it, is that there is no good option for outgoing mail. You can't leave it in your own mailbox, one said, because you never know who is going to pass by and take it. Nor, they added, can you leave it in front of the post office, because someone steals it at night. The result is a sense that no drop-off point can be trusted.
Local officials have taken note of the trend. As News 12 has reported, they have issued warnings about using outdoor mailboxes, reflecting how widespread the problem has become. Adding to the concern, video has shown people fishing for mail, pulling items out of boxes in a method that has alarmed residents and officials alike.
The scale of the issue is reflected in national figures. According to the most recently available statistics, the Postal Service received around 20,000 complaints of mail theft every year between 2023 and 2025. That steady volume of complaints points to a problem that has persisted across multiple years rather than a one-off spike.
One of those affected put a concrete figure on the loss. Mike LaMonaco said he put checks in the mailbox outside his Stony Brook home, and that one of those checks was stolen and cashed for almost 5,000 dollars. The experience changed his habits, and he said that what he and others have learned since is that they no longer put checks in the mail out there.
The caution now extends even to the post office itself. LaMonaco said they avoid leaving checks even at the post office, because they have heard so many other stories of theft. News 12 said it reached out to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service for comment and was still waiting to hear back, leaving residents to navigate a problem that, for now, has them rethinking how they send their mail.