Many residents throughout Queens noticed in January that they were missing mail, and many received delayed checks, tax documents, bills, medicine and packages. This prompted U.S. Reps. Grace Meng, Joseph Crowley and Gregory Meeks to send a letter to the head of the United States Postal Service calling for a plan to address ongoing and serious mail delivery problems. They also wrote that constituents have complained about poor customer service at local post offices and called for a detailed course of action to improve mail delivery throughout the borough. The postal service responded by announcing that they would hire more mail carriers. USPS later announced that they would hire more mail carriers to prevent future delivery delays. In addition, Rep. Meng called for the installation of “anti-fishing” mailboxes throughout the district to prevent mail theft. Usually acting late at night, the fishing criminals place string connected to a sticky material into collection boxes. The sticky substance attaches to the mail and the crooks pull out the envelopes. They then open the letters and steal people’s personal information such as bank, credit card, and Social Security numbers. These criminals also engage in check washing, a scheme in which they wash ink off of checks they have stolen and rewrite the name of the payee and/or the amount. Anti-theft collection boxes have smaller slots that make it more difficult for thieves to steal the mail that is inside. We're happy to see that they are in the process of being installed in our area.