The United States Postal Service says it's investigating after a mail carrier was robbed at gunpoint in San Carlos.
The incident happened Thursday Afternoon in San Carlos.
It was an online post that caught San Carlos resident Suzanne Greene attention about a mail carrier robbed at gunpoint.
“A mail carrier during the middle of the day. I’ve never heard of it. I guess my husband said he has heard of it in other towns. So we are in shock,” she said.
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Residents who live in the normally quiet neighborhood near Walnut Street and St. Francis Way were caught off guard.
“I’m shocked. I wasn’t aware that we ever had crime like that in this area,” said Alan Wintroub of San Carlos.
U.S Postal Inspector Matthew Norfleet said the mail carrier wasn’t hurt.
“This is a depressingly common scenario for letter carriers,” he said.
Norfleet added in the Bay Area, there have been at least five mail carriers robbed in the last two weeks alone.
“There was also a robbery in San Bruno last week, a robbery in Milpitas, a robbery in Union City and a robbery in Oakland. All within about a week of each other. So this is a widespread problem," he said.
Norfleet told NBC Bay Area that with these crimes, there is typically a common thread.
“The target in almost all of these robberies are the keys that letter carriers carry in order to open mailboxes along the route and deliver the mail so there is only reason to have these keys if your not a letter carrier that’s to steal mail, ” Norfleet said.
The crime is not limited to the Bay Area. The USPS said this is happening regularly across the country.
“We take this crime seriously. This is an intolerable situation for letter carriers to have to be frightened that they’re going to be robbed on their routes, they’re having weapons pointed at them," Norfleet said.
Norfleet points out that postal inspectors are criminal investigators attached to the postal service and solving these crimes with local law enforcement is their highest priority.
“The reward for information leading to arrest and conviction for anyone who robs or assaults a postal employee of any kind including these letter carriers is up to $150,000. So, the Postal Service takes this very seriously, anybody who has information can contact us," he said.
