Post Office Issues Warning After Thieves Begin Fishing From Brooklyn Mailbox
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- It's fishing season in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn – but not in the sense of catching actual fish.
As 1010 WINS' Al Jones reported Monday, the target is a corner mailbox at Rogers Avenue and Maple Street. Mail is being collected from the box, but not by the Post Office.
"They're fishing," said one neighbor. "What they're doing here is using the fly paper, and they're putting it in, and they're pulling it out. They've got the stuff."
Post Office Issues Warning After Thieves Begin Fishing From Brooklyn Mailbox
The thieves have been pulling up the cash, checks, DVDs and video games that end up in the mailbox.
"They should use their mind to do something beneficial to themselves and everybody else," the neighbor said.
The thefts have prompted the U.S. Postal Service to warn people not even to use the mailbox that thieves have been targeting. A white sticker has been posted on the mailbox.
Another neighbor got the warning a little too late.
"I didn't really look," she said. "I mailed a bill with a money order in it."
After mailing the bill, Kelly was worried about what would happen to it.
"I am concerned, and now I'm wondering how I'm supposed to get my mail back," she said. "I mean, I thought they would have at least put a phone number here or something."
The Postal Service has advised handing mail directly to a carrier or taking it to the Post Office.
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