How do I get info regarding mail tampering laws?

[The_Chao_Goes_Mu]

I have a neighbor who may be messing with my mailbox. I would like to understand the laws governing such things in case this escalates.

I’ve tried the US Postal Service site and the Dept Of Justice but can’t find anything
which clearly states the law. Does anyone know where I can quickly access this information?

[DeVena]

Call your local postal inspector if you think that anyone is destroying or stealing your mail.

Title 18, United States Code
Section 1705. Destruction of letter boxes or mail

Whoever willfully or maliciously injures, tears down or destroys any letter box or other receptacle intended or used for the receipt or delivery of mail on any mail route, or breaks open the same, or willfully or maliciously injures, defaces or destroys any mail deposited therein, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years.

Section 1708. Theft or receipt of stolen mail matter generally

Whoever steals, takes, or abstracts, or by fraud or deception obtains, or attempts so to obtain, from or out of any mail, post office, or station thereof, letter box, mail receptacle, or any mail route or other authorized depository for mail matter, or from a letter or mail carrier, any letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or abstracts or removes from any such letter, package, bag, or mail, any article or thing contained therein, or secretes, embezzles, or destroys any such letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or any article or thing contained therein; or

Whoever steals, takes, or abstracts, or by fraud or deception obtains any letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or any article or thing contained therein which has been left for collection upon or adjacent to a collection box or other authorized depository of mail matter; or

Whoever buys, receives, or conceals, or unlawfully has in possession, any letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or any article or thing contained therein, which has been so stolen, taken, embezzled, or abstracted, as herein described, knowing the same to have been stolen, taken, embezzled, or abstracted – shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

[smam]

Whoever steals, takes, or abstracts, or by fraud or deception obtains, or attempts so to obtain, from or out of any mail, post office, or station thereof, letter box, mail receptacle, or any mail route or other authorized depository for mail matter, or from a letter or mail carrier, any letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or abstracts or removes from any such letter, package, bag, or mail, any article or thing contained therein, or secretes, embezzles, or destroys any such letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or any article or thing contained therein; or

Whoever steals, takes, or abstracts, or by fraud or deception obtains any letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or any article or thing contained therein which has been left for collection upon or adjacent to a collection box or other authorized depository of mail matter; or

Whoever buys, receives, or conceals, or unlawfully has in possession, any letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or any article or thing contained therein, which has been so stolen, taken, embezzled, or abstracted, as herein described, knowing the same to have been stolen, taken, embezzled, or abstracted – shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

If the guy is nicking your mail you should leave a suitably attractive looking envelope in your mailbox with a letter containing just that information.

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

I can’t find a statute, but it’s also a violation to put anything besides mail into a personal mailbox. Once at the age of about 8, while the family was vacationing in a rented beach house, a neighbor woman yelled at us kids for firing blank guns. In retaliation, I put a banana peel in her mail box. Sure enough, a couple of days later there were a couple of policemen asking around the neighborhood regarding this incident of mail tampering! :eek:

Pretty scary for an eight year old, let me tell you.

My secret was safe, though.

[Wonko_The_Sane]

Go to your local post office, and mention your concerns. They may know if this has happened before, and how it was dealt with in your municipality.