Stolen Mail Art 10-27-2014

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Comment by Shellie Lewis | moved 2020! on October 29, 2014 at 4:46pm

My letter carrier told me when he started his route, a fellow mailman was put in handcuffs about once a week for theft that year. >.< I know he would never swipe anything. He likes to see what I get since he drinks at the bar under my apartment from time to time. Mental note: buy mailman a beer soon.

My main complaint is with the carelessness. Chicago Postal workers are amazing at not giving a damn. Just try to register a delivery complaint here. They will show you a convenient wall you may address.

Winter heading into the Hanukkah and Christmas holidays last year, I had a big spike in theft, losing at least 17 items and getting many envelopes cut open as if with a knife or razor blade, very clean cuts.

2014 CBS 2 report, some people do not get their mail at all.

1994 Chicago post office caught burning the mail.  This has continued in minor pockets, a lone postal worker caught with a smaller amount than the one from 1994, which I have seen reported on TV local and radio news shows. I found some reports in local Yelp reviews, Everyblock and other local neighborhood blogs.  Not finding anything online this minute from a major entity, gotta get to work anyway. 

Comment by De Villo Sloan on October 28, 2014 at 8:32pm

Great post and discussion. I had forgotten about William Faulkner's service.

This is not about stolen mail specifically, but there was a very lively discussion on Facebook about who stole the Spam Radio. That would be Ray Johnson's Spam Radio Club. The radio has never been recovered.

Comment by Richard Canard on October 28, 2014 at 8:05pm

28.10.14 Dare Ms. Shellie Lewis, I sympathize with your damaged mail. I've been there. It happens & I don't like that either....although as mail artists we generally celebrate the markings, etc. automatically supplied by the mailing process....(I  was privileged to work for the U.S. Post Office one summer back there in the late 60's [mostly loading & unloading trucks at the Western Nawf Karolinah Distribution Center (sorting parcels as well-a process  in those days  that involved  gently tossing a package into a row of large canvas mail bags--not altogether unlike the act of throwing a ball of waded paper into a trashcan]...& I  do remember an older & wiser co-worker that seemed to take delight in giving an extra hard shove to anything labeled "fragile".) Anyway, a new twist--the governmental surveillance business(& The USPS) are far more  exacting & precise than I could ever possibly comprehend.  Check out the New York Times.com U.S.P.S. article by Ron Nixon on October 27, 2014. It seems that the Post  Office has some sort of system in which it photographs every single item that is mailed (or did I read that right?) No doubt  that we "mail artists" are on some sort of list for special scrutiny (or am I just being paranoid again?)...But... hey!!! I certainly don't want" to bite the hand that feeds me."For every "creep" I've met at a Post office window, I've met ten others that were most pleasant & efficient---plus I couldn't be more pleased with the lady & occasional gentlemen that actually deliver my mail....& certainly  not to mention my  own habitual mock-dada offerings (odd-shaped postcards, messages in plastic bottles, unwrapped items with insufficient or hap-hazard postage, etc., etc.) over the years.... contributing  I suspect( in my own minor way) to the chaos.... & oh yes,....one of my favorite stories that I read somewhere. The writer William Faulkner was (at one point in his life) the postmaster in the small town of Oxford, Mississippi.  Naturally, he spent most of his time writing...& would also periodically burn mail he didn't care to mess with in the wood stove & or throw the mail in the garbage as it began to pile up around him.  & as he became more successful as a writer he of course gave up his lofty status as Postmaster. Many years later, The U.S. Post Office honored him with a postage stamp.  Best to you. Richard Canard

Comment by Shellie Lewis | moved 2020! on October 28, 2014 at 5:09pm

Well, the sender indicated it was not rigid and was under 1/4 inch thickness, so this is another fine example of postal worker theft. This is a big problem in the Chicago mail system. 8( Also, go Google search Chicago mail burning.