CRIME WATCH FOLLOWUP: Postal inspectors following up ‘active leads’ in mail-truck thefts

Tuesday afternoon, we reported on the theft – and recovery – of two U.S. Postal Service carriers’ trucks in West Seattle. The initial response was from Seattle Police, but as commenters noted, this is a federal crime. So we followed up with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service today. Regional spokesperson John Wiegand said he couldn’t comment extensively because: “There is follow up on this investigation going on right now, with some active leads … We have a possible suspect vehicle identified and are following up on that right now.” As for who investigates from here, “We are the primary agency investigating these, SPD responded as it happened in their jurisdiction and are usually always in the loop on things happening in the city limits. That allows us to amplify our reach and investigation with resources.” They don’t have specifics to share regarding exactly whose mail was stolen, but if you learn that yours is missing – such as, via use of a stolen credit card – they want to hear from you, and Wiegand says the best way is by phone: 877-876-2455. He added: “We are working with the postal service to help prevent these from happening more. And we encourage members of the community to be on the lookout, if they see unknown individuals removing mail from a mail truck and placing it in another vehicle to please call police asap and preserve any video of they have it. Yesterday we were able to recover multiple videos from the community that will be very helpful.”

1994 January 18, 2023 (9:33 pm)

Time to try the boot on the wheels when the trucks are parked. Fingers crossed the postal inspectors will catch these lowlifes soon.

Nature January 19, 2023 (11:41 am)

Better idea, they throw a couple bait packages in with every load. Load it up with a GPS and a couple of dye packs. No way these guys could all the packages opened before the driver notices their truck missing.

Pdavis January 19, 2023 (10:42 am)

Online news shows the vehicle being a truck with a rear canopy. Maybe West Seattle blog can get that picture on the blog? It’s from a ring doorbell looks like two people in the truck.

WSB January 19, 2023 (11:00 am)

Hi, if anyone has visuals we’d be more than happy to publish them. If you’re referring to one of the tv stations that followed up on the story we broke, they are all run by big corporations with big staffs who get the luxury of one story at a time, so they likely knocked on doors to find somebody with video, which we unfortunately do not have the bandwidth to do – we really rely on community partnership. westseattleblog@gmail.com (although most importantly, if you have video, get it to the Postal Inspection Service!)

Scott Walker January 19, 2023 (11:36 am)

Would be great if they could boot them, but mail trucks stop about every 5 minutes. They’re already short staffed and adding this amount of time to the route would not be feasible.

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