Watch out for theft from street mailboxes, Londoner warns after packages stolen

When Robert Thompson of London, Ont., dropped three small packages into a red Canada Post mailbox at the beginning of February, he had no idea he was basically throwing away $1,200 with no recourse.

Thompson also stumbled on a surprising way that thieves are getting their hands on Canadians' mail, whether it be small packages, $20 sent from grandma to grandchildren, or personal information contained in bills and government documents — by tipping over the Canada Post street mailboxes and reaching inside for the loot. 

"I guess I never considered that that could happen," said Thompson, who uses Canada Post to send items he sells on eBay. 

Usually, he drops the packages off at the Canada Post outlet near his home in Byron. Recently, it's been closed at random times, leaving customers like Thompson in a bind. 

"You drive over there and there's a sign in the window that they're closed, just randomly. They've been doing this for a couple of years and it's annoying." 

Canada Post told CBC News it's not experiencing staffing shortages in their post offices in the London area, and also said there's not been an uptick in vandalism to street letterboxes in the region. 

But there has been a recent "rapid and unprecedented" increase in vandalism in Toronto that has put many mailboxes out of commission. 

With his Canada Post outlet closed and since he'd paid for the shipping at home and printed off the labels, Thompson decided to drop his packages into one of the red mailbox on Saturday, figuring they'd be picked up and on their way to their Canadian and American destinations by Monday. 

But the eBay customers contacted him, telling him the tracking number was never activated and they didn't get their package. "I paid for tracking, I paid for insurance. I physically put them in the box," he said. 

"When I went to Canada Post (later), they said 'Oh, if you dropped it off Saturday, it was probably stolen by Saturday night. We have theft out of those boxes all the time.' I couldn't believe it," Thompson said.

It's possible the tip-and-grab methods used by mailbox thieves in Toronto are being used here, he added.

That's left Thompson's customers without the collectibles they bought on eBay, and Thompson out approximately $1,200.

"I always thought those mailboxes were more secure than that. I didn't realize you could just push it on its side," he said.

"I'm annoyed because I'm out a whole lot of money and I wonder how many people know that this is problematic. I've never really had problems with things disappearing, because usually when they get into the system, the insurance ill kick in. But this one, since it never got into the system, they're denying the insurance, because they say they can't know that I actually dropped it in."