海角社区官网

In a video shared with Star, a young man wearing a hoodie who looks to be in his 20s, comes into the vestibule of the building, with the mailroom door on his right.

He places his backpack down, and while his back is to the camera, he pulls something from the bag. He then uses what looks like a key to access a Canada Post lock to the door. About a minute later, he leaves with a large number of letters. Residents of the building use a fob to access the mailroom.听

鈥淔rom the video footage, it was obvious that this guy did not open the door to the mailroom with a fob. He used a special Canada Post lock,鈥� said Crawford. 鈥淲e saw him going into the room on the camera. There’s no camera in the room, but these Canada Post keys also open all the mailboxes and he came out of the room a minute or so with a handful of mail.鈥�

Canada Post workers use keys that give them access to buildings and mailrooms. In Crawford’s building, the key also opens up the doors to the banks of mail boxes of where the postal worker can deposit the mail.

Crawford said he called Canada Post on April 29 to discuss the problem, and in response, the area supervisor sent him an email, which he forwarded on to the building鈥檚 residents.

鈥淭he security and safe delivery of your mail is our top priority. The mailroom lock in the building is in the process of being changed. We have been in contact with the property manager, and we are working on a solution,鈥� said Canada Post鈥檚 missive.

Mail service was suspended to the building and the residents must go to the Canada Post office at 600 Commissioners St. to pick up their mail, which is 4.5 kilometres away and near Tommy Thompson Park. Crawford says he鈥檚 gone to pick up his mail at the Commissioner’s Street Post Office but is concerned about some of his senior neighbours having to make the trip.

Canada Post, however, told the Star the suspension in mail delivery at Crawford’s building is due to “recent vandalism,” and would not comment on the report of theft due to security reasons. An investigation into the incident is underway, a spokesperson said.听

“We take these matters and the security of the mail very seriously. Mail theft is an indictable offence under the Criminal Code. Our Postal Inspectors work in constant collaboration with police services throughout the country to ensure security of the mail,” said Lisa Liu, a spokesperson for Canada Post, in a statement.听

The postal agency says they are working on a temporary solution where residents will be able to pick up their mail at the building until the locks are changed.

But Crawford says he doesn’t buy Canada Post’s response: “It’s not vandalism, there was no damage.”听

Crawford also added he鈥檚 spoken to three Canada Post employees听who said there had been a rash of these type of thefts in the area.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not a secret, they all seem to know about it,鈥� he said, although he didn鈥檛 know of any other specific buildings that have been affected.听

The Star has not been able to independently verify if other buildings have had mail theft incidents.

Crawford also filed a police report, and 海角社区官网police spokesperson Ashley Visser says they are aware of a report of a mail theft at the condo building听and are investigating.听Visser added there are no reports of suspected mail thefts at any nearby residential buildings.听

But that鈥檚 one of Crawford concerns.

鈥淗e could have stolen other mail and people just might not be aware of it,鈥� said Crawford. 鈥淭he only reason we knew we had a theft was that our super was looking at the security video and saw unusual activity at 5 a.m. on a Saturday. It is certainly possible that this is not first time he has done this at our building. He did not damage anything and locked the boxes again.鈥�

Canada Post did not comment on whether a master key for the area was lost or being used in this case.

In 2020, CBC reported that听thieves were using a听master key to burgle mail rooms in several residential听buildings in Ottawa. The thieves were only discovered by security footage that showed one incident, and after review of surveillance feeds from nearby buildings found they had been committing several robberies for months.

Mail theft is a crime that can lead to a sentence of 10 years in jail.听