Entire community mailboxes stolen in Surrey

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SURREY (NEWS1130) – The same day Canada Post was rolling out its plans to phase out door-to-door mail delivery in parts of Delta, thieves made off with entire community mailboxes in Surrey.

“It’s quite unusual, that’s for sure,” says Stephen Gale with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.

The culprits made off with two side-by-side boxes on 28 Ave between 169 and 170 Streets Thursday afternoon.

“They must have used a winch to pull them from the base. And they would have needed a truck of some sort, as the boxes are made of solid steel,” surmises Gale.

He points out the Lower Mainland accounted for half of all the vandalism against mailboxes in the country last year.

“Theft from community mailboxes in Surrey and Langley was a huge issue in the fall of 2013. It was massive amounts of theft going on. So Canada Post started replacing the old boxes with these new ones. That seemed to slow it down.”

And why do people steal entire community mailboxes?

“It’s identity theft. They get enough information from the mail to steal identity,” says Gale, who says the union is shining a light on the crime, to let people know the drawbacks of Canada Post’s policy to phase out all door-to-door delivery in the country in favour of community mailboxes.

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