Yes, stealing mail is a crime, and a serious one. Under federal law, taking someone else’s mail from a mailbox, a blue collection box, a post office, or a letter carrier is a felony punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000. The same statute reaches anyone who knowingly buys, receives, hides, or holds onto mail they know was stolen. It doesn’t matter whether the envelope contained a check for thousands of dollars or a greeting card with nothing inside.
What Federal Law Prohibits
The main mail theft statute is 18 U.S.C. 1708. It makes it a crime to steal, take, or fraudulently obtain any letter, package, or other mail from a post office, mailbox, collection box, mail carrier, or any other authorized place where mail is kept or delivered. It also criminalizes buying, receiving, concealing, or possessing mail you know was stolen.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1708 – Theft or Receipt of Stolen Mail Matter Generally
Postal workers who steal mail are prosecuted under a separate statute, 18 U.S.C. 1709, which carries the same five-year maximum. Those cases are handled by the USPS Office of Inspector General rather than the Postal Inspection Service.2U.S. Postal Service. Mail Security
What Counts as Mail Theft
The reach of 18 U.S.C. 1708 is broader than most people realize. It covers letters and packages taken from a residential mailbox, an apartment cluster box, a blue USPS collection box, a post office lobby, a delivery vehicle, or a carrier’s satchel. Mail left near a collection box for pickup is protected too.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1708 – Theft or Receipt of Stolen Mail Matter Generally
You don’t need to be the person who originally lifted the mail to face the same felony charge. Anyone who knowingly receives, hides, or possesses stolen mail is committing the offense.
What About Accidents and Misdelivered Mail
The statute requires criminal intent. It targets people who “steal, take, or abstract” mail or obtain it “by fraud or deception.” Opening a letter the carrier put in your box by mistake is not a federal crime. Once you realize the mail isn’t yours, though, hanging onto it or throwing it away instead of returning it to the postal system can start to look like something the statute does cover.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1708 – Theft or Receipt of Stolen Mail Matter Generally
Packages From FedEx, UPS, and Amazon
Federal mail theft law only covers items in the USPS system. Packages delivered by FedEx, UPS, or Amazon’s own drivers fall outside it, and porch thefts of those parcels are prosecuted under state theft or larceny laws instead. The value of the package usually decides whether the state charge is a misdemeanor or a felony. One wrinkle matters: private carriers sometimes contract with USPS for “last mile” delivery. If the Postal Service actually made the final drop, taking that package can be charged federally even though the shipment started with a private company.
How Serious Are the Penalties
Mail theft is a felony no matter how little the stolen mail was worth. Congress removed any value-based distinction in 1952, so a single stolen letter carries the same statutory maximum as a truckload of packages: five years in federal prison. The maximum fine is $250,000 for an individual under the general federal fines statute.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3571 – Sentence of Fine
Actual sentences depend on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, and two factors tend to push mail theft sentences up. The first is financial loss. Losses above $6,500 add two offense levels, losses above $40,000 add six, and the scale keeps climbing from there. The second is the number of victims. The guidelines contain a rule specific to mail theft: taking mail from a USPS collection box, relay box, delivery vehicle, or carrier satchel is presumed to involve at least 10 victims. For cluster mailboxes at apartment buildings, each individual mailbox counts as a separate victim. Ten or more victims adds two offense levels, and causing substantial financial hardship to five or more victims adds four.4United States Sentencing Commission. USSC 2B1.1 – Larceny, Embezzlement, and Other Forms of Theft
When Extra Charges Get Stacked On
Mail theft is rarely prosecuted alone when the stolen mail was used for something else. Prosecutors routinely add charges that carry heavier penalties than 1708 itself.
Aggravated Identity Theft
Stealing mail to harvest personal information and then using that information to impersonate the victim triggers 18 U.S.C. 1028A, aggravated identity theft. It carries a mandatory two-year prison sentence that runs consecutively to any other sentence. A judge cannot reduce it, substitute probation, or let it run concurrently with the mail theft time.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1028A – Aggravated Identity Theft
Bank Fraud and Check Washing
A common scheme involves stealing checks from the mail and chemically altering the payee or amount to redirect the funds. That conduct is bank fraud under 18 U.S.C. 1344, with a maximum of 30 years in prison and a $1,000,000 fine. The distance between the five-year mail theft ceiling and the 30-year bank fraud ceiling shows how quickly exposure grows once stolen mail becomes the tool for a financial crime.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1344 – Bank Fraud
Stolen Postal Keys
Organized mail theft crews target USPS “arrow keys,” the master keys that open entire panels of cluster mailboxes and blue collection boxes. Stealing or possessing a stolen arrow key is a separate federal offense that gets charged alongside the mail theft, and in coordinated cases the combined maximum exposure can reach decades depending on the defendant’s role.7United States Department of Justice. 27 Defendants Charged With Federal Crimes Targeting the United States Postal Service
How to Report Stolen Mail
If you think your mail has been stolen, report it to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service online at uspis.gov or by calling 1-877-876-2455. If you see a theft happening, call 911 first.8United States Postal Inspection Service. Report a Crime
When the stolen mail included Social Security numbers, bank statements, tax documents, or anything else useful for identity theft, act quickly. The Federal Trade Commission recommends three immediate steps: contact any company where you suspect fraud and ask them to freeze the account, place a free fraud alert with one of the three major credit bureaus (which then notifies the other two), and file an identity theft report at IdentityTheft.gov or by calling 1-877-438-4338. That report creates a recovery plan and works as official proof of the theft when you dispute fraudulent accounts.9Federal Trade Commission: IdentityTheft.gov. What To Do Right Away
If the stolen item was a federal benefit check like a Social Security payment, report it to the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General at oig.ssa.gov or by calling 1-800-269-0271.10Social Security Administration. Fraud Prevention and Reporting