Idyllwild Post Office vandalized
At about 4:55 a.m. Monday, Aug. 23, Idyllwild Postmaster Lorraine Sonoqui was awakened with the news that Idyllwild’s post office had been vandalized in an apparent break-in attempt. Riverside County Sheriff’s deputies responded.
PHOTO BY JACK CLARK
A good deal of gouging at the white double door leading to the back room evidenced an attempted break-in, and three boxholders’ mailboxes had been wrecked with their mail strewn on the floor. Because of this, the post office was closed for a time.
Sonoqui was able to determine that no mail was missing, however, because she checked with U.S. Postal Service online delivery information as to each piece of mail that had been delivered.
Within the past two weeks, mail has been stolen from the blue, after-hours letter box in front of the post office, and three checks were altered and cashed. Sonoqui said that check-cashing services are sometimes involved in cashing such stolen and altered checks. She also said she knows all these recent Idyllwild postal crimes were committed by the same person.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is investigating these Idyllwild crimes. Mail theft or receipt of stolen mail is a federal felony punishable by a fine or up to five years imprisonment, or both. (18 U.S. Code § 1708.)
Sonoqui strongly advises no one deposit into the letter box outside the post office after 3:30 p.m. weekdays and 2:15 p.m. Saturdays, the times when the box is emptied, so mail will not be sitting in it overnight. She also recommends boxholders check their mailboxes daily or at least once or twice a week.
Sonoqui further suggests people go online to see what pieces of mail to expect will be delivered to their boxes using USPS’ Informed Delivery mail-tracking feature. Sonoqui related this can be done by visiting https://informeddelivery.usps.com.
However, after several attempts over three days using two different Idyllwild post office box numbers, this reporter obtained only the statement: “Sorry … Your address is not currently eligible for Informed Delivery. Please check back at a later date.”
