'Anybody's mail can be tampered with': Retired CPD officer upset about neighborhood postal thefts

CHICAGO (CBS) -- We're learning more about the robbery of a mail carrier this month on the South Side.

Turns out, the thieves stole residents' mail and a postal master key--which can be used to access locked mailboxes all over the zip code.

CBS 2's Tim McNicholas digs into this postal problem.

Investigators say these are the men who robbed a mail carrier at gunpoint this month in broad daylight, just down the street from Marvin Bonds' house.

He said both men walked by his porch near 99th and Calumet minutes before the robbery. One of them even asked him for directions to a basketball court. The man walked away and minutes later, Bonds got a call from his mail carrier Ron.

"Ron called me on my cell phone, asked me to come out. He'd just been robbed," Bonds said. Sources with knowledge of the investigation now tell CBS 2 the men stole mail and a postal master key, much to the frustration of Bonds, a retired police officer.

"It's a threat. Anybody's mail can be tampered with. They have access to apartment building mailboxes and they have that master key," Bonds said.  

Earlier this year in Bucktown, CBS 2 obtained video of a thief opening apartment mailboxes with a key. And last year in Park Ridge, federal court records said a thief or thieves repeatedly opened these blue boxes outside the post office, using "either an authentic or counterfeit key."

So what are postal investigators doing to crack down on key thefts?

Well, in the past two months they've offered rewards of up to $ 25,000 in three separate armed robberies of Chicago-area mail carriers, including the one down the street from Marvin Bonds' home.

"Very angry about it happening. In my block, on my block, while I was here," Bonds said.

That means information leading to the conviction of these men could net reward money. And Bonds hopes it leads to justice for his mail carrier of almost a decade.

"We've become friends over these seven years."