Police probe armed robberies of postal workers in South Hills

Mt. Lebanon police early Tuesday apprehended four people as part of an investigation into recent armed robberies of postal workers in the South Hills that left one injured.

Authorities launched an investigation last week following two incidents in Upper St. Clair and Bridgeville, said Dave Gealey, a U.S. Postal Inspection Service spokesman.

No charges had been filed as of Tuesday afternoon against any of the four people who were detained.

Officers took the suspects into custody following an overnight traffic stop, Gealey said.

No further details were immediately available.

An armed suspect attacked a postal worker on Bridgeville’s McLaughlin Run Road last Wednesday after the worker, who was on duty and inside his U.S. Postal Service vehicle, did not hand over an “arrow key,” Gealey told TribLive.

An “arrow key” can provide universal access to public mailboxes, parcel lockers and secure areas where mail can be found, including public areas in apartment buildings, Gealey said.

The postal worker, whom authorities declined to name, suffered “a definite injury that needed medical attention,” Geary said.

Geary would not elaborate.

The postal worker was treated at a local hospital and released.

Two days after that attack, an armed man wearing a mask entered Upper St Clair’s post office on Lesnett Road through a rear door and stole “postal assets” after holding a postal worker at gunpoint, Gealey said.

While the suspect in the Bridgeville attack did not get away with postal equipment such as an arrow key, the suspect in the Upper St. Clair incident did, Gealey said.

Cutting-edge crime

Attacks and robberies against postal workers in the Pittsburgh area “have not been that frequent,” Gealey said.

Gealey could not cite statistics.

On the national level, however, the number of postal worker robberies increased during the pandemic, Gealey said.

The postal inspection service reported nearly 6,800 incidents or violent crime or threats against postal workers in fiscal 2023, the agency said on its website. Investigations ended in 289 arrests for assault and 193 arrests for robbery.

In 2023, federal officials launched Project Safe Delivery, which tried to drive down the number of thefts from carriers, Gealey said. That initiative, which included training in Pittsburgh and other metropolitan areas, helped decrease reported incidents nationwide by about 34%.

If convicted, an individual robbing a postal worker could face up to 10 years in prison, Gealey said. If the postal worker is injured, the prison sentence could go up to 25 years.

The U.S. Postal Service also has worked to “harden assets,” installing blue mail-collection boxes with heightened security, such as electronic keys and locks.

“If suspects are trying to target postal keys, and if they steal the keys, the keys are useless — we disable them,” Gealey said.

Suspects who attack postal workers “are usually attempting to steal valuables from the mail or postal property—such as postal keys,” the inspection service said on its website.

The inspection services arrested more than 1,500 suspected mail thieves in fiscal 2023, according to the agency’s website. More than 1,200 charges ended with convictions.

“Mail theft today is often not petty crime carried out by single actors but by sophisticated criminal organizations with access to cutting-edge technology,” the service said online.