Murray Watt has had enough.
In the past two weeks, the Valleycliffe resident’s mailbox has been broken into twice. In the past two years, mail has been stolen from his box six times.
“They [the culprits] literally take a screwdriver to the box and open it up,” Watt said.
Watt was waiting for a new credit card to arrive. It was his second attempt, as the initial card was stolen from the post box two weeks previous. The Canada Post boxes are located in a quiet hallway in the Town Centre Shopping Mall across from the Westway Village Apartments. There isn’t great visibility in the area and Watt questioned whether the security cameras are in working order.
Post theft at the Valleycliffe mailboxes is an ongoing problem, Watt said. Something needs to be done about it, he said.
“I can’t keep track,” Watt said.
Canada Post is aware of the situation in Valleycliffe, the Crown corporation’s spokesperson Eugene Kanpik told the Squamish Chief.
“We are going to make a change in that area,” he said.
The Valleycliffe boxes are an older design. Canada Post is moving toward a “community mail box set up,” Kanpik said, noting it’s a more secure system.
The new boxes may be moved to a different location with more visibility,
he added.
“Hopefully that will make a improvement,” Kanpik said.
Only one per cent of all the mail Canada Post deals with falls into the hands of thieves. Of that, the majority of the illegal activity seems to be taking place in the Lower Mainland.
“Vancouver had been a hot spot,”
Kanpik said.
Kanpik encourages residents to pick up their mail regularly to discourage mail theft. He also asked that residents report suspicious looking people hanging around the Valleycliffe mailboxes
to police.
“We are dealing with this issue,”
Kanpik reiterated.
