US mail theft often begins with a stolen key [Video]

U.S. mail carrier Jeremiah Grant was walking his Oklahoma City route in April 2022 when a masked man approached him.

“He had a gun pointed at me,” Grant said. “I just kind of froze.”

The attacker demanded Grant hand over his universal mailbox keys, known in the U.S. Postal Service as arrow keys.

“That’s all he asked for,” Grant said. “He wanted my keys.”

One arrow key can open many mailboxes in a delivery area.

They’re so valuable that it’s against federal law for an unauthorized person to be in possession of one.

But that hasn’t prevented a nationwide wave of robberies involving arrow keys.

A Scripps News investigation found an increasing number of letter carriers being targeted by criminals on the hunt for arrow keys.

In 2021, 132 arrow keys were snatched away from mail carriers. By 2023, that number had more than tripled to 418, according to numbers …