Suspect Arrested for Opening Kensington Postal Relay Boxes

By Matis Glenn

A suspect was arrested after trying twice to swipe mail from postal relay boxes – the dark green metal containers on many street corners – in Kensington on Thursday, Shomrim tells Hamodia.

A witness called Shomrim at around noon when the suspect was seen exiting a black car and opening a relay box on Ditmas Avenue and East 3rd Street. Upon finding no mail bags inside, the suspect closed the box and continued on his way.

Shomrim identified the car and followed him while alerting police. While being followed, the suspect repeated his attempt at burglary, a few blocks away, at a box located on Avenue F and East 3rd Street.

Police stopped and arrested the suspect, whose name is unknown at this time, on 41st Street between 16th and 15th Avenues shortly after.

Postal relay boxes allow mail carriers to reload their carts with mail while making their rounds, without having to make repeated trips to distribution centers.

“People aren’t getting their mail,” Boro Park Shomrim Coordinator Motty Braunner told Hamodia. “This has been a problem all over.”

Braunner says that the thieves manage to purchase keys to relay boxes on the black market.

“Last week we had a similar call; that suspect was working together with a partner, and they had a U-Haul truck with them,” Braunner said.