PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – The U.S. Postal Inspection Service has seen a rise in postal letter carrier robberies and is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any suspects.
From Wednesday to Saturday, letter carriers will deliver more than 300,000 reward flyers to neighborhoods across Miami-Dade and Broward counties in an effort to find any suspects.
"We want to make sure that the community knows and that the thieves and robbers know that we are very serious about this," U.S. attorney Wilfredo A. Ferrer said. "We are going to prosecute them. We are going to find them. We're going to hold them accountable for the injuries and the harm they are causing to our government employees."
In March, two postal carriers were robbed in Coral Springs and Tamarac.
Inspectors said one man got away with a vehicle key in Coral Springs, while another got away with a master key in Tamarac, just 20 minutes apart.
The first robbery happened March 13 on Northwest 116th Terrace in Coral Springs. The second robbery was at the Concord Village condominiums on University Drive in Tamarac.
Inspectors said the master key stolen in the Tamarac theft can open dozens of mailboxes in the area.
Authorities are also still searching for two men who robbed a mail carrier of her master key in North Miami last October.
According to investigators, the woman was making her daily deliveries at the Alhambra Cove apartments off 119th Street and 15th Avenue when two men ran up to her with a gun and demanded her master key. She handed the key over and was not injured.
USPIS officials said the armed robbery of a U.S. Post Office or postal employee is punishable by a prison term of up to 25 years. Theft of a postal key is punishable by up to a 10-year prison term.
Anyone with information about postal carrier robberies in South Florida should contact the USPIS at 877-876-2455.
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