U.S. Postal Service Removes Village Green Mailbox After Tampering

By LILY TINOCO | Reporter

Those who send their mail in Pacific Palisades may have noticed a change on Antioch Street: A U.S. Postal Service mailbox that stood at the Village Green was recently removed due to vandalism and repeated attempts of theft.

“Customers would call and complain about the glue from the theft attempts being on the box, mail not going into the box because of the glue around the entry point for the mail,” according to Pacific Palisades Post Office Postmaster Uco Johnson.

Longtime Palisadian Warren Cerreghino shared disappointment of the removal, adding he made use of the mailbox often since moving to the Palisades in 1997.

“Before I retired in 2015, I worked nights in West LA and on my way to work, I used it two or three times a week to drop off letters before the final pickup of the day,” he said to the Palisadian-Post. “I have always been aware of mail thieves working in the area, putting stickum on drop chutes … so I would make sure anything I put in a box wasn’t going to sit there overnight, when the thieves try to make their collections. That’s why the drive-up box was so valuable to me.”

Suspected mail theft at collection boxes has been a concern in the Palisades in recent years. In June 2021, the Post spoke with postal customers Karen and Morteza Khaleghi, whose checks were reportedly dropped in the Antioch collection box, stolen, altered and cashed.

The person who made off with the Khaleghis’ checks scored $30,000, and the couple was forced to close an account they had for over 30 years.

“As is his usual practice, [Morteza] made certain that the envelopes went [through] to the mailbox itself,” Karen said. “On Tuesday … in checking our bank accounts, he noted that there were problems with the checks. The made-out-to and amounts had been changed, and the checks had been cashed.”

That same year, Palisadian Betty Fennel warned neighbors about the box located at Radcliffe Avenue and Carthage Street being coated with something sticky and letters stuck in the chute.

Johnson said they were unable to confirm when, and if, installation of another mailbox would occur, that the matter was pending with the Delivery Operations Team.

He explained customers have the option to take their mail into the post office on La Cruz Drive in the interim.

“Its loss is a blow to the community,” Cerreghino concluded.