Skip to content

Concerns over Pitt Meadows community mailbox

Started in May, then resident's identity stolen, door left open

A break-in to her community mailbox has turned into a long and upsetting ordeal, involving potential identify theft, for Melanie Robinson and her husband.

They live on Streamstone Walk in Pitt Meadows and said that in May someone broke into their community mailbox.

Canada Post immediately forwarded all of the residents’ mail to a post office, but soon after someone tried to write an $8,000 cheque on her line of credit.

Fortunately, her bank caught the cheque.

Then someone used a Home Depot card in the couple’s name to charge a couple hundred dollars worth of items.

After many calls, the couple got those charges cancelled.

Then, the forwarding of her mail to a post office box number stopped after only a week. And last month, after the more secure community mailboxes were installed, the small door for her mailbox was left open.

Robinson said she spent hours on the phone trying to find out what was going on. It was only this week that Canada Post said it would investigate.

In particular, Canada Post will look at whether an employee left the door open and ensure that her mail will be forwarded to a post office, for which she paid $265.

“We’ve been talking with Canada Post, trying to get answers,” said Robinson.

“Why was our mailbox left open? Why can’t we change the locks? We’ve been dealing with it for months.”

Robinson said if the incident only involved a break-in to the mailbox, she wouldn’t have been as worried.

But it was the subsequent identity theft that brought the worry.

“It’s serious stuff when people are pretending they are you.”

A few months after the break-in, police called her and told her that her husband’s name was on a fake firearms permit, showing a different person in the photo.

“We have no idea what they’re doing. We don’t know who is trying to become Jason, which makes me wonder why our mailbox specifically was left open.”

She said Canada Post needs to be accountable for keeping mail secure.

Canada Post did change the lock to the mailbox this week and told Robinson it will ensure that her mail will be forwarded to her post office box number.