HOUSTON – A cluster of mailboxes at the Gable’s Metropolitan Uptown Apartments was completely accessible to anyone who tried to open it -- with a key or without.
The cluster was broken and had been broken, according to residents since July -- more than six months.
“We tried everything we can think of, complaining, contacting the mail service and nothing has happened,” said John Cook, a resident of the complex.
John Cook, 63, has been complaining about this broken cluster mailbox for months but it has not been repaired.
The problem is some kind of broken latch that allows anyone to simply pull on the outer frame of the cluster and pop open the entire front face of this metal mail box, giving anyone access to 35 different tenants' mailboxes.
“My wife have gotten to the point where we do not trust that our mail is safe”, Cook said.
In fact, in October, Cook says he and his wife took a two week trip to Hawaii and when they returned, all of their mail had been stolen. Their mail box was completely empty.
On Thursday, Channel 2 Investigates went straight to the rental office at the Gable’s Metropolitan Uptown Apartments to get answers.
We were told there was no manager available, but a sales agent working at the office told us she had no idea the mailbox was broken.
“I wasn’t aware of that,” the sales agent told us.
But by 5 p.m. on Thursday, John Cook called us to tell us that the mailbox problem had been fixed.