- Neighbors are reacting to the news of a USPS Office of the Inspector General Team searching Tallahassee post offices.
- The news was announced Wednesday by Congressman Neal Dunn.
- Watch the video to hear why one neighbor is relieved:
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
A federal United States Postal Service team searches Tallahassee post offices after reports of late, missing and stolen mail.
I have been covering these ongoing issues with postal service since November.
She's taking a look at how we got here and why it's taken so long.
"I'm glad there's an investigation because I think there is probably something going on." That's Fransisco Carpio. He lives in my neighborhood.
I told him a U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General Audit Team is looking into mail issues that I've tracking for months. Congressman Neal Dunn announced the news on Facebook Wednesday.
He told me he sent checks through the Centerville Road post office back in October of 2023.
Those checks never made it where they were supposed to go. "They call us from a local bank and say there is someone trying to clear a check here. It seems like it has been white washed. It's for 5,000 dollars, have you authorized this? I said no."
He is not the only one who told me they've had this experience.
Through covering this story since November, I have spoken with two other neighbors who say they had checks stolen and filed reports with Leon County Sheriff's Office.
I have also reported on late and missing mail sent to and from our Tallahassee offices.
Commissioner Brian Welch said his office has received over a dozen complaints. He said its been going on for a while. "Those problems really became more acute in the last 2, 3 years. It's gone beyond just missing mail and inconsistent delivery to now where we are having reports of checks stolen very frequently."
I followed up with him after he told me about the new audit announced Wednesday.
"Why has it taken so long to get to this point?" I asked Welch.
"It's difficult to get an inspector general's team to commit and come into a market and actually doing a thorough investigation to see what the problems are. This is obviously a huge step in the right direction."
Meanwhile, Carpio said he's glad they have reached this point. He said he hopes the investigation will allow him and other neighbors to be confident that their mail will reach its destination. "Correct whatever they need to do to ensure people it's safe to go back and put their post offices so they don't have to go through this."
Dunn's office said it will take about three to four months for the auditors to come back with a final report.
