If You See a Blue Mailbox in the Hudson Valley, Don’t Use It!

The U.S. Postal Service is warning people not to use its blue boxes to send mail on certain dates.

I'm not sure if every Hudson Valley town still has any of those blue United States Postal Service mailboxes or not but if your town does, the postal service is warning people not to use them on certain dates.

Blue Mailboxes

For as long as I can remember one of the easiest ways to mail a letter in the part of Poughkeepsie that I live in was to pull up to the blue mailbox on the corner of Marple and Crestwood and drop whatever I needed to mail into the blue mailbox slot. You know the mailboxes I'm talking about right? They are usually located in a popular part of town, and sometimes they are right outside of the post office.

Wherever they are in your neck of the woods, you might want to stop using them because they aren't the safest way to mail things according to the USPS.

Why Should We Stop Using Blue Mailboxes?

The USPS said in an effort to prevent mail fraud and identity theft, they are encouraging anyone who regularly uses the blue mailboxes to avoid using them on Sundays and any federal holiday because groups of criminals across the country are now using social media and the internet to target certain collection boxes.

USPS said,

"The biggest variable enticing these criminals to steal are customers depositing mail into blue collection boxes after the last collection of the day or during Sundays and federal holidays."

If you must use a blue mailbox the USPS said to make sure you know what time the postman will pick up each day and never drop off mail overnight.

How to Make Sure Your Mail is Sent & Received, Safley

The safest way to use the mail is to drop off your mail at your local post office and utilize in-person transactions. Another safety feature the USPS offers is Informed Delivery, which gives customers the chance to set up tracking notifications, identity verification, and digital signature authorization for delivered mail and packages.

With the holidays approaching fast it's important for everyone to be extra careful when mailing gifts (money in cards), the best practice is to stop into your local post office to mail everything. I bet your post person will be happy to see you...LOL.

$10,000 Reward

If you ever see someone other than a postal service employee opening or taking anything out of a blue mailbox make sure you report it to the postal service as they offer a $10,000 reward if the criminals are caught. See something? Call 877-876-2455 to report it.