United States postal inspectors are offering a $150,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of at least two suspects, who robbed a postal worker in Oakland.
The incident, which happened Thursday on Euclid Avenue, is the latest in an alarming trend of Bay Area postal workers getting robbed while on the job.
A video of the latest incident showed a mail carrier walking through a gate when she was approached. U.S. Postal Inspector Matthew Norfleet told NBC Bay Area that at least two suspects took the worker’s postal keys.
“This has happened to her from what she told us,” he said. “Over the last couple of years, she has had her keys grabbed or attempted to be grabbed a couple of times now already.”
Norfleet added that the postal keys have become the target.
“The keys only have one use if you’re not a letter carrier and that’s to steal mail,” he said.
This isn’t the first time it’s happened in this area of Oakland. In March on Euclid Avenue, there was another video, which appeared to show a suspect pulling out a weapon and demanding the postal worker turn over the mailbox keys. The suspect later snatched the keys.
“It happens in that immediate area with shocking regularity,” Norfleet said.
Last week, a letter carrier was robbed at gunpoint in San Carlos.
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In March, thieves broke into a postal worker’s truck while he was making deliveries in a Fremont neighborhood. When he returned to the post office where he parked, he discovered that his own car was gone.
“Unfortunately, it’s at least a weekly occurrence here in the Bay Area. We’re hearing the same thing across the country, letter carriers are just waiting for that moment when they’re gonna be robbed at this point,” Norfleet said.
Norfleet says the United States Postal Service is offering a $150,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible in Thursday’s robbery in Oakland.
“One is too many times. And being something, that carriers worry about every day is really just unacceptable,” he said.
