13 Investigates uncovers hundreds of postal employees found culpable of stealing mail

HOUSTON, Texs (KTRK) -- Emily Metoyer's dad started her family's printing business 50 years ago in his garage. Since then, the company, which primarily designs and prints programs for funerals, has expanded with an office building and more services.

But, some things haven't changed. Metoyer said she still has customers who pay for invoices with paper checks mailed through the post office.

Over the last year, she said incoming and outgoing checks have been stolen from the mail, and now she's worried how it might impact her family-owned business.

Starting in late 2022, Metoyer said she started noticing incoming and outgoing checks were missing. Sometimes, she said her mailbox had envelopes with invoices and payments from customers that were ripped open.

She said people stole the checks inside, fraudulently changed the amount on their payments and cashed them.

"This is really sad that this is what is happening. This is from a church. Like I can't imagine reading that and taking the money," Metoyer said as she held an envelope that had been ripped open before she could check her mail. "I was really sad. Anger did not come until this process kept going. Anger hit me when I had contacted (the post office) and it got worse."

SEE ALSO: 13 Investigates: Houston No. 1 in stolen checks resold on dark web, research shows

Metoyer said even after she put a hold on mail delivery, instead opting to pick up every item of mail from the Oak Forest Station, she still had missing mail, including stolen checks that someone attempted to fraudulently cash in a different amount than what it was written for.

Now, she said, she worries someone inside the post office could be responsible for her missing mail.

13 Investigates asked USPS about Metoyer's concerns about the Oak Forest Station where she gets her mail. They denied our request for an interview, but our investigation found the agency does have some documented issues.

Through extensive records requests, 13 Investigates learned in the past four years, the US Postal Service Office of the Inspector General has handled 261 cases in which a USPS employee has been found culpable of mail theft in their Southern Region, which includes Texas. They tell us 18 of those cases are duplicates, leaving 243 cases where a USPS employee has been found culpable of mail theft in the Southern Region.

The Office of Inspector General, which is the agency that investigates USPS employees, opened a mail theft investigation at Oak Forest Station three months ago, according to the records 13 Investigates obtained.

Their office would not confirm that investigation but told us the agency "is aware of the complaints out of the Oak Forest Post Office and will continue to review the situation."

The Office of Inspector General did not accept our request for an interview, but in an email, they told us the vast majority of the 600,000 postal service employees would never consider engaging in any criminal behavior.

INTERACTIVE: Explore the map below to see how often mail thefts were reported in your neighborhood On mobile device? Click here for a full screen experience.

Still, statewide, our investigation found 413 USPS arrow keys were reported missing, lost or stolen last year, according to the US Postal Inspection Service. Our investigation found 77 of those master arrow keys were reported missing, lost or stolen in Houston alone.

Arrow keys are universal keys used to access collection boxes, parcel lockers, cluster box units and apartment panels.

An audit released last month by the USPS Office of Inspector General found arrow keys were not properly managed or safeguarded Oak Forest Station.

At Oak Forest, "12 the 55 keys listed on the inventory log could not be located. Unit management had not reported the missing keys to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service," according to the audit. "PM supervisors were aware of their responsibility to collect keys in the evening; however, other duties, such as scheduling mail delivery and requesting vehicle maintenance, took priority. Management did not know spare collection keys had to be listed on the log."

USPS also has reported incidents where mail carriers were robbed for their arrow keys.

During the first half of fiscal year 2023, there were 305 incidents where letter carriers reported they were robbed on the job, according to a USPS Office of Inspector General audit from September.

As postal issues continue across the region, Metoyer said she's having a hard time getting someone to answer her concerns.

She filed a complaint with USPS but said she has "zero" faith in them.

"I've not heard back from them. I have physically gone up there. I've spoken with the supervisor. I have her email address. I've contacted her with no response after getting one response back at the end of October," Metoyer said. "I have filled out the online customer complaint with the postmaster as I was advised to do it and I've called them and I haven't heard anything back from the post office."

Now Metoyer, whose family-owned business has a small staff, said there's some days she spends more time contacting customers and her bank about stolen checks than doing her actual job.

She worries what could happen to her business if the situation at USPS doesn't improve.

"It has potential to completely devastate us," she said. "Please get some oversight in these local branches because we do rely on you. You are our lifeline and I never realized that until now."

Watch ABC13 at 10 p.m. Friday for part two of our series as 13 Investigates' Kevin Ozebek uncovers just how few post office inspectors are assigned to investigate your concerns.

For updates on this story, follow Kevin Ozebek on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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