For any building in a city where mail is delivered in a vestibule, postal carriers have a master key to get into the building. Armed robber takes mail courier's master key in Bucktown, part of growing crime pattern in Chicago - CWB Chicago
Experts say the stolen master keys are used by theft crews that steal checks, credit cards, and documents to fuel identity theft operations.
I would have to look to be, but I think all postal master keys are the same for the entire country. The photograph provided sure looks familiar. Fire departments have similar keys, but they are divided by region of the country. So a fire department key would still open every apartment building door in Chicago, or New York, or wherever.
A CWB source said that mail thieves are “part of a larger operation that uses stolen mail to open checking accounts and launder stolen checks,” among other crimes.
Washing checks is apparently a still a thing. Check fraud has increased from 13,000 for all of 2021 to 17,000 cases so far in 2022 just in Chicago. (Oh, and the article on check washing recommends the use gel pens with black ink for writing checks.)
I believe that the keys open both the vestibule outer door as well as the banks of mail boxes.
Hey Deb,
ReplyDeleteAbout a year ago, my fire department in Kommiecticut had a bunch of outgoing checks stolen and washed. They were mailed inside the post office, not an outside drop box. The theory is it was either an inside USPS job, or the trucking contractor that moves the mail to the distribution centers. Also, mail and checks were stolen from several area post offices and organizations. One of our checks that was washed was written out for $76 to our insurance company and changed to $10,826 made out to Jorge' Ramos which caught our bank's immediate attention. We never heard the outcome of the USPS investigation.
FYI... the FD key system we use is called a Knox Box. It is a key vault attached to a building that holds the entry door keys, master keys, utility room keys, etc. Each Knox Box "system" is keyed by department. When a facility decides to participate, they buy the vault and have it installed, and it is keyed from the factory to match. There is a Knox Box key in every one of our apparatus, and the chiefs each have one on their key ring. It is a great system and eliminates the old way of having one big giant key ring full of keys and having to figure out which one opened a particular door.
Knox Box isn't 100 percent fool proof. Here is a video from a Hacker Con in 2016 (I think). It covers all the ways that people bypass master keys. Including Knox Box keys. Howard Payne & Deviant Ollam - This Key is Your Key, This Key is My Key
DeleteAnd one western fire department (Phoenix?) had several of the Knox keys stolen
Also Knox has real specific installation instructions, which building owners sometimes do follow, and other times do not follow. (If you can steal a Knox Box you can get into it, and then you have a key that will open every building in the city.)
There is a similar video on elevators and using the fireman's override to bypass security inside a building.
Nothing is foolproof, I agree. But being a small town and only having a few keys the chances of having those kind of problems are practically zero here. They are most helpful for us getting into apartment buildings for medical calls during the day when the building entry door is locked, and in the case where the tenant is unable to get to the apartment door.
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