Targeting prolific mailbox thieves in Richmond has, according to police, resulted in a downturn in related crime.
Richmond RCMP’s officer in charge, Supt. Will Ng, told a city council community safety committee last week how his detachment has been focusing on mailbox theft, which has been a growing problem in the city during the last year.
“Mailbox theft for this month has been trending down,” Ng told city council.
The Richmond News reported earlier this month that between 1,500 and 4,000 local homes, according to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, were without mail service in any given month due to vandalism and theft of mailboxes.
Two months ago, said Ng, 54 mailboxes were in a state of disrepair (due to vandalism and theft), across Richmond.
“That number has been reduced to 30. Now, I understand that around 900 residents are now affected,” added Ng.
The postal workers’ union called a press conference earlier this month, wanting to draw attention to apparent long queues of residents looking to pick up their mail at the city’s sorting depot at No. 3 and Cambie roads.
At the root of the problem is not only the sheer volume of people being inconvenienced, but also the expectations on Canada Post to help fix the mailboxes.
One affected resident,Thomas Xue, told the Richmond News he was expecting a two-month delay in mail delivery to his accounting firm on Bridgeport Road, due to vandalism of his strata’s mailbox.
The problem for condo and apartment owners, much like business parks, appears to be that when a strata mailbox (as opposed to a community mailbox on a public street) is broken, it is up to the property manager to fix the problem.
