Surveillance video shows a brazen thief quickly stacking up stolen mail from a Dallas neighborhood, using what postal inspectors say is a stolen master key. The theft happened Tuesday night in a Dallas neighborhood and affected at least 20 homes. Neighbors said they initially did not suspect anything was wrong as their mailbox cluster was not damaged. “It wasn’t until our mail lady yesterday flagged me down and she said, ‘I got a quick question for you,’” Derek Ackner said. According to Ackner, their USPS mail carrier wondered why the entire mailbox cluster was wiped out. So, he reviewed his surveillance cameras. “It’s 7:15 p.m. the night before (when) a car pulled up and cleared out both of our mailboxes. So, about 25, 30 homes,” Ackner said. The five-minute video showed the driver of a gold car entering the private property on Tuesday evening and parking his vehicle next to two mailbox clusters. The driver exited the vehicle and, within seconds, opened the mailbox cluster. He is seen stacking dozens of envelopes in his left arm before unlocking another cluster box. Three minutes later, the man calmly walked back to his car and drove away. Postal inspectors hope to identify the driver of a gold car, who they say used a stolen master key to steal mail from a cluster mailbox. “It’s outrageous,” Ackner said. Ackner alerted his neighbors. A report was made to the United States Postal Inspection Service Wednesday night. “In that instance, we know that our USPS Arrow Key is out there due to some robberies,” said Dr. Jeffrey Fobbs Jr, a federal agent with the United States Postal Inspection Service. “Unfortunately, our hard-working men and women of the US Postal Service — letter carriers have been robbed at gunpoint for that key.” According to Fobbs, federal agents carefully review every detail of the video, including the license plate of the car seen in the video. “They did the right thing by seeing something, reporting it, and we can give them the information they need,” Fobbs said. “We will start working up any leads that we have for that car. Do what we need to do as far as investigative techniques to locate the car, locate drivers, locate those involved. And again, our goal is to try to prosecute these folks federally.” In response to an increase in mail theft and violence against mail carriers, in May 2023 the USPIS launched Project Safe Delivery to specifically fight mail theft and violence toward letter carriers. “While we have experienced mail theft in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, we can say overall, even across the country, our amount of complaints are down 27%,” Fobbs said. “That’s because of the hard work we’ve been doing across the country with our Project Safe Delivery, which targets mail theft, violent crimes and anything we do to make our postal employees safe.” During the 2024 fiscal year, nationwide USPIS had: 1,197 cases initiated 1,559 arrests 1,210 convictions “1,400 of those (arrests) have been mail theft-related, where we know [we’re] trying to recover those keys,” Fobbs said. Still, neighbors said they are uneasy due to the possibility of identifying information being compromised. “One of our neighbors was rather panicked yesterday thinking that she was expecting the delivery of her own child’s birth certificate,” Ackner said. “It’s a huge issue.” HOW CAN YOU PROTECT YOURSELF AGAINST MAIL THEFT? Pick up mail promptly. Request the Post Office to hold your mail while you’re away for an extended time. Sign up for Informed Delivery to track and manage your mail and packages. If you have concerns about security in your neighborhood, consider installing a lockable mailbox or obtaining a PO Box from your local Post Office. To report suspected mail theft, submit an online complaint at www.uspis.gov/report or call 877-876-2455 and say “theft.”