7 On Your Side Investigates: Thieves stealing postal keys to open your mailbox

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Criminals are stealing postal keys to unlock your mailbox and steal your identity.

They're getting the keys by robbing letter carriers or buying them on the dark web.

7 On Your Side Investigates uncovered an increase in crimes against postal workers and an increase in keys that have been reported lost or stolen in New York and New Jersey.

Some of the brazen crimes have been captured on camera. From two people who robbed a letter carrier of his key in Millburn, New Jersey, to a man who used a postal key to open a large mailbox in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

"The postal service is under attack," said Frank Albergo, a postal police officer who's the nationwide president of the postal police union. "It has become a very dangerous job becoming a letter carrier," he said.

The criminals are stealing what's called an arrow key. They're master keys that can be used to open any mailbox in a given zip code.

"It's like having a key to the city," said Albergo. "It's a treasure trove for a criminal because once you get that mail, it's like Christmas," he said.

The United States Postal Service has seen a "dramatic increase" in mail theft.

Eyewitness News also found a dramatic increase in keys being stolen.

282 postal keys were reported lost or stolen in New York alone last year. That's almost double the amount of 155 from the year before. We're on track to surpass that in 2025.

New Jersey had 191 keys in 2023 and 2024 combined. The small state of Connecticut, 143, for the same time period.

Some of those keys are being sold on the dark web. Eyewitness News found a half dozen postal keys for sale from the New York City area.

"We have seen New York City being the epicenter of people selling those arrow keys," said David Maimon, a criminal justice professor and security expert at Georgia State University. He tracks the crimes.

Maimon says the more lucrative the neighborhood, the more lucrative the price.

"The current price for an arrow key ranges between $1,000 and $2,500 in the New York area," said Maimon.

In a statement, the United States Postal Inspection Service's New York Division said in part:

"The Postmaster General and the Chief Postal Inspector have taken significant action to counter mail crimes-including the launch of Project Safe Delivery in May 2023. The program's proactive approach has led to a significant decrease in robbery and mail theft incidents. The program's robust measures have led to hundreds of arrests for Postal robberies and thousands of arrests for mail theft. For instance, the number of robberies has decreased 27% Fy 2023 to Fy 2024."

Part of Project Safe Delivery includes replacing about 50,000 of the old keys with electronic locks.

"They're going to replace 50,000 arrow key locks with an electronic version, but there are over nine million arrow key locks, which is less than one percent of the total number," said Albergo.

Some of those tracking the crimes aren't convinced electronic keys will solve the problem.

"At the end of the day, instead of robbing a mail carrier of a key, you'll be robbing them of a phone or a fob or any other technology," said Maimon.

He believes it will take more prevention and harsher punishment for criminals.

In Washington, many lawmakers have introduced bills with bipartisan support. But they haven't passed.

"If we can't deliver on something as obvious and rational and as helpful as this relatively minor fix, then how can we be expected to do the big things?" said U.S. Representative Dan Goldman of New York.

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