Emails confirm mail theft at north end HHI post office. Postal officials remain silent
While weeks-long rumors of stolen mail at Hilton Head’s north end post office remain unconfirmed by U.S. Postal Service officials, two emails between an investigator and two separate mail theft victims obtained by The Island Packet / Beaufort Gazette confirm an employee was stealing mail. Further, the emails contain information that the employee was discarding stolen checks.
The employee, reportedly “removed” from the William Hilton Parkway office May 30, allegedly “threw away all checks” she stole from the mail, according to a June 9 email sent to a victim of mail theft from Special Agent L. Paul King of the Office of Inspector General, whose Columbia office is investigating the allegations. King’s brief email to the island resident simply read: “Based on our investigation, the employee threw away all checks she stole from the mail.”
Another of King’s emails, sent to a different complainant the afternoon of June 7, revealed a $100 Mastercard gift card was “recovered from the employee” at the north end post office. The gift card was then returned to the north end Hilton Head woman, according to previous reporting.
The total count of missing mail pieces and the time period the thefts occurred within remain unclear, but more than two dozen reports of mail thefts were sent to the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette’s tip box. Many of these incidents were first sent to the Postal Service online complaint system. In these complaints, islanders suspect checks, cash, gift cards and one shipment of crab claws have disappeared from the mail since May of 2022. With $2,315 reported missing to the Island Packet’s tip box, the majority of incidents came from north island residents.
Representatives from the Office of Inspector General have maintained throughout that the Postal Service “does not confirm or refute” information on ongoing mail theft investigations — but residents can report missing mail by filing an online complaint at https://www.uspsoig.gov/hotline.
Islanders can also report mail issues to the Island Packet’s tip box by emailing newsroom@islandpacket.com with details about what went missing, when it was mailed and where it was shipped from. Anyone who believes they are a victim of mail theft is encouraged to first report it online to the Postal Service to assist their investigation.
Below is a sample of local mail theft complaints shared with The Island Packet / Beaufort Gazette, many of which were first reported to the Postal Service.
This story was originally published June 29, 2023 at 12:46 PM.
