The case of Signal Mountain’s missing mail has been solved, according to postal officials, but an investigation is ongoing.
“Special Agents with the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (USPS OIG) have identified a postal employee they believe to be responsible for the recent complaints of non-receipt of mail in Signal Mountain. This individual is no longer employed by the U.S. Postal Service,” USPS OIG Public Information Officer and Special Agent Scott Balfour wrote in an email last week.
When several residents along Corral Road started noticing some of their mail was missing, they reported it to officials, as well as the Times Free Press, leading to an article that appeared two weeks ago. (Read that article at timesfreepress.com/news/2014/sep/26/mail-thefts-on-signal-mountain-probed.)
Upon realizing he was not the only one missing mail like checks, bank statements and credit card bills, Corral Road resident Randy Blackburn set up a camera to try to solve the mystery.
“I got a lot of pictures, but nothing that would seem to be of any help,” he reported last week.
Meanwhile, many neighbors, like Scottie Summerlin, had their mail held for pickup at the Signal Mountain Post Office.
“I’m not accusing somebody of theft; I think there’s also some kind of internal processing problem with the post office,” Summerlin said last week – after still having received mail in her home mailbox on several occasions, and other times having no mail at all when checking in at the post office.
According to U.S. Postal Service Corporate Communications Officer David Walton, all the regular-size mail for ZIP codes designated for the Chattanooga area is sorted electronically at a central plant and divvied out by route. The sorting machine even organizes the mail in the order of the stops on each route.
“Complaints of this nature are relatively rare, considering there are about 450,000 postal employees nationwide who deliver over 158 billion pieces of mail annually,” Balfour wrote. “However, USPS OIG special agents take these complaints seriously and will conduct a thorough investigation if appropriate.
“Special agents are continuing to investigate the [Signal Mountain] matter, so I cannot provide further detail at this time.”
Summerlin believes the issue may be more widespread.
“On my Facebook page I had several people post that’s happening in Chattanooga, Brainerd,” she said.