“Stolen Mail” Google News Alert
11-04-2009 | 
by Jenny | 
Category Mail & Identity Theft | 
Have you ever wondered how I find all of the news articles we feature in the “Mail Identity Theft” category? Well, I set up a Google News Alert for the term “mail theft” so Google sends me news stories of mail theft from across the country on a pretty much daily basis. This nifty little tool provides me with oodles of mail theft stories, and of course, we hear about mail theft from other sources as well: home and business owners victimized by mail identity theft, employees of the postal service USPS, etc.
Well that was going fine and dandy, until yesterday, when I decided to set up a new Google News Alert for the term “stolen mail”. I couldn’t believe how many stories were in my inbox this morning!
This made me think. It’s as though the media chooses to report on mail theft as “stolen mail” - an incident, or anecdotal event - rather than “mail identity theft” - a serious and growing crime trend. What do you think? A semantic coincidence, or indicative of something more?
Anywayyy, without further ado, here is just ONE of the MANY news reports of “stolen mail” I found in my inbox this morning, just 12 hours after I set up the new Google News Alert:
Grand jury issues 45 indictments ranging from assault to DWI The Graham Leader - 11/3/09
GRAHAM, TX - [...] April Bishop and John Renteria were indicted on one count of unlawful use of a criminal instrument. The two were arrested in September for allegedly using a tool to remove mail from a public mailbox. [They] had made a tool that slipped into the public blue mailboxes. At the end of the tool, a sticky substance was placed to grab the mail. Bay said the duo were looking for cash or checks that could be whitewashed out and cashed. When a sheriff’s deputy stopped [them], he recovered mail in their vehicle, and open mail was found scattered down the highway. The mail that was located was allegedly stolen from a mailbox in Bryson. [...]
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November 5th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
I don’t think this is a coincidence at all. Wherever an opportunity exists for some people to get easy money, they will do it. The fact that stolen mail leads to identity theft is just a consequence of human behavior and the words used to describe it differ.
November 5th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
You ask an interesting question Jenny. (In other words, you asked for it!) I learned from a Phil of Language course many years ago that the words we choose to use are pretty important and reflect an underlying societal worldview.
I agree there is a subtle but important difference between the expression “stolen mail” and the expression “mail identity theft”. A derelict teenager in the neighborhood steals your mail. “Mail Identity Theft”, on the other hand, is part of an organized antisocial epidemic that is threatening to undermine our institutions.
Order and cooperation in society require that people believe in the ability of our institutions to maintain themselves. Chaos and Uncertainty does not rest well in the human psyche! We want to believe we are “in control”. The truth is, whether we are prepared to admit it or not, there are a growing number of people who believe they are entitled to pillage and plunder, and they do.