A six-figure reward was offered in exchange for information after suspects were caught on camera robbing a letter carrier at gunpoint.
(Video: KTVU)
As violent crime has surged across the country, employees of the United States Postal Service have often found themselves the victim of robberies and assaults. Monday in Dublin, California east of San Francisco, a 63-year-old career carrier became one of the latest victims when a man rushed up to her and asked “You don’t want to die, do you?”
The California carrier, who spoke to KTVU under condition of anonymity, could be seen with her postal truck behind her as she delivered mail to two curbside boxes on the route. The footage from a neighborhood security camera showed as the first of two masked individuals came jogging down the street to grab and confront.
“Somebody came up behind me and ‘boom,’ just hit me, and put a gun to my head,” the 33-year carrier described. ‘He said, ‘Give me your keys. You don’t want to die, do you?’ I go, ‘No, no, no.’ So I reached in, got my keys, and he goes, ‘Where’s your phone? You got two minutes.’”
From holding the gun to her head to then pointing it in her face, after the carrier gave her arrow key over to the robber, she was allowed to retrieve her phone from the truck which was taken as the two men ran off.
Now, in the middle of a month of leave, the carrier explained to KTVU that she was seeing a therapist, “I feel anxious, I can’t sleep. My heart is pounding.”
Seeking information that could lead to the arrest and possible conviction of the suspects, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service offered a $150,000 reward as KTVU reported a neighbor spotted a blue Infinity arriving and departing at the time of the incident. It also marked one of six such incidents across the Bay area in the last month.
This week, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) reiterated calls to pass H.R. 7629, the Protect Our Letter Carriers Act, through Congress.
The social media account for NALC National shared a report out of Baltimore via Maryland Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D) where more than 20 postal carrier robberies and assaults had occurred since 2022.
“Thank you for standing with letter carriers and supporting the swift passage of The Protect Our Letter Carriers Act…It is critical that Congress past this important legislation so the people who deliver America’s mail can be safe on the job,” the account noted.
Thank you for standing with letter carriers and supporting the swift passage of The Protect Our Letter Carriers Act (H.R. 7629)!
It is critical that Congress pass this important legislation so the people who deliver America’s mail can be safe on the jobhttps://t.co/ylwbV47kaq https://t.co/QSHnGneDFd— Letter Carriers (@NALC_National) May 7, 2024
The bill, introduced in March and referred to the Judiciary and Oversight committees, seeks to obtain $1.4 billion annually over five years toward the installation of high-security mail collection boxes along with electronic versions of universal keys issued to carriers when they depart for their routes.
Additionally, the legislation seeks to require the attorney general to appoint an assistant U.S. attorney in every judicial district to prosecute crimes against carriers and make the sentences for robberies and assaults of these federal employees more severe.
As a reference, the NALC indicated that this year in San Francisco an individual convicted of robbing a carrier by gunpoint had been sentenced to a mere 30 days in prison while a similar case in Mississippi had garnered an eight-year sentence.
When asked if she would be returning to work having considered retiring within a year-and-a-half, the carrier told KTVU, “I want to. I really want to because I like my job. I think I will.”
“I love my customers. I love to serve them,” she added.
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Author: Kevin Haggerty
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