MAIL THEFT A PROBLEM IN CALOOSA COMMUNITY
Retiree learns mailbox thief also targeted others on his street.
Ken Link wrote a $5 check to his favorite charity in mid-May, dropped it into his personal mailbox, and went on his way.
It wasn’t until the 77-yearold federal government retiree reviewed his bank statement last Monday that he discovered his small donation intended for the Young America’s Foundation — a California-based conservative youth organization — ended up being a $1,500 payout to a woman he did not know.
“My check was whitewashed to be from the charity’s name to a person’s name,” he said.
Link, who lives in the Caloosa community located off the Beeline Highway about a mile south of Indiantown Road, immediately notified the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office about the theft.
He was surprised to learn he was not the only one who was targeted.
“PBSO came by (last) Tuesday and took down my information,” he said. “In his laptop, he showed me the same thing had happened to a neighbor across the street on the same day, payable to the same person, for a similar amount.”
Mail theft is nothing new in Caloosa, Link said. A few months ago, the community’s property manager told residents by email to be careful with outgoing mail.
“The suggestion was not to mail from the personal mailboxes at the driveways, but to go put it in a blue box someplace,” he said, referring to a United States Postal Service collection box.
There are no blue mailboxes in Caloosa, however.
When Link and his wife want to send mail that way, they use a mailbox on PGA Boulevard. It’s not the most convenient way for them to send mail, Link said.
It’s also not the safest, according to the manager of a USPS branch in Palm Beach Gardens, Link said.
Link stopped by the post office on Fairchild Gardens Avenue last week and spoke with the manager about mail security.
He asked if it would be possible to place a mailbox in Caloosa for security reasons, and said he was told that it would be no safer
for residents to send their mail that way.
“He said blue boxes weren’t any more secure than the personal boxes by everybody’s driveway,” Link said. “People are breaking into them all over the place. In fact, the three blue boxes that used to be at the Palm Beach Gardens Post Office aren’t there anymore. People break into the boxes and steal stuff.”
The Palm Beach Gardens Post Office did not respond to requests for comment.
Now that he’s been victimized, how does Link plan to send his mail in the future?
That’s up to his wife, he said.
“We live in Caloosa, but we come down PGA and there is a blue box to the west of Central Avenue on the south side of the road,” Link said. “We usually cruise in there, park the car and put it in that blue box. But it’s probably as vulnerable as any other blue box in town. It’s the wife’s choice for a blue box.”