A spate of mailbox break-ins at an apartment complex in East Cobb has forced postal workers to stop delivering mail to residents.
The U.S. Postal Service notified residents at the Rockledge Apartments along Powers Ferry Road that they had to pick up their mail at the nearby post office. The July 30 notice came three days after management at the apartment complex informed residents that the change was because the mailboxes weren’t secure and had been broken into on multiple occasions.
Scott Davis, a Rockledge resident, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that local law enforcement should have done more to find the culprits responsible for the break-ins.
“The fact that this was happening up and down the Powers Ferry corridor is appalling since they guard the Braves Stadium like a G-7 meeting site,” Davis said. “Yet the people who actually live here, pay taxes here and contribute to the county, we’re getting noplace in terms of addressing the violation of our mailboxes.”
The saga began July 27 when property managers emailed residents a letter notifying them that the U.S. Postal Service would not deliver mail to the apartments until the mailboxes were secured. According to a copy of the notice provided to the AJC, property managers were working to buy new mailboxes. The notice indicated it would take about five weeks to install them. BH Management, the Iowa company that owns Rockledge, did not provide details about the alleged mail thefts when contacted by the AJC.
That meant residents at Rockledge had to go to the post office for two weeks to retrieve their mail. Some residents said they had to wait in line for up to 45 minutes.
Sometime during the second week of August, the setup changed. The postal service started delivering residents’ mail to the leasing office and management delivered it to residents from there.
“You’re talking about people’s stimulus checks, there are people who get their medication in the mail,” Davis said. “It’s a huge inconvenience now that the post office has decided to give confidential mail to the leasing office.”
Officials from the U.S. Postal Service confirmed that postal workers temporarily stopped handing out mail at Rockledge and three other complexes in East Cobb. It was not clear why distribution was cut off at the other developments, but USPS officials said mail delivery was never suspended at the other locations.
“On-site apartment management at the impacted complexes have agreed to temporarily distribute mail to our customers until they can replaced the damaged boxes,” Postal Service spokesman Rick Badie wrote in an Aug. 19 email to the AJC.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigates mail-related offenses that involve the Postal Service. Neither the Postal Inspector or the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office received any reports of mail theft at the addresses, according to spokespersons for both agencies.
Marietta police received a “few” minor reports of mail theft that did not appear to be connected, agency spokesman Chuck McPhilamy said. It was not clear if any of those were at the affected apartment complexes.
Cobb County police were called out to the Rockledge Apartments on July 20 after one of the property managers reported multiple mailbox break-ins at the complex during the past several months. Complex owners notified local postmasters and police told the property manager to fix the mailboxes to reduce theft, according to the incident report.
Ursula Thomas has lived at Rockledge for almost a year. She said she has received almost none of her mail for the past month. She lost her wallet in July and was awaiting a new debit card when the mail stopped coming to her mailbox. She visited the post office one time to get her new card, but had to wait in a long line for about 45 minutes. She said the delay caused her to be late on her rent and car payments for the month.
When contacted Thursday, Thomas was not aware that the leasing office was handing out mail now.
“It’s a very bad inconvenience because even if the apartment complex is giving us our mail, they’re only giving us what the post office is bringing them,” she said. “I’m not confident I’m getting all my mail.”
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