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To assist customers with their preparations for the upcoming busy holiday shopping and shipping season, the U.S. Postal Service provided a 2023 holiday shipping and mailing deadlines list.

Homeowners in a Copperfield neighborhood said they’re caught in the middle of a dispute with their homeowner’s association and the United States Postal Service over who is responsible for replacing their damaged cluster mailbox.

Two men are accused of stealing mail from a large drop box in Sugar Land on Dec. 30, police said Wednesday.

Some homeowners in Copperfield say neither their homeowner’s association nor the postal service will replace their mailboxes after a driver damaged them beyond repair last week.

Mail theft has become so rampant in Houston. The United States Postal Inspection Service has created a Houston mail theft jump team to investigate and try to stop the theft of mail and robberies of mail carriers. Our KPRC 2 Investigates team first exposed this problem back in May and has new numbers on the troubling crime.

Back in June 2021, Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher asked for an investigation into post offices in her district after residents who live on the west and southwest side of Houston filed more than 300 complaints.

Now that December is here, many of us are eyeing those Christmas lists and checking off all the things.

A legendary news pioneer will be honored on a new stamp next year.

Two postal contractors in West Texas have been charged with stealing thousands of pieces of mail worth more than $4 million.

Cluster mailboxes break through normal wear and tear or they're vandalized and need repair. In the past, in a lot of communities, the postal service repaired or replaced them. But now USPS is passing that burden on to customers, but they're not being very clear about it. KPRC 2 Investigates is getting answers.

Since before the start of the pandemic, many of you have complained about not getting your mail on time.

Residents in the Brenwood subdivision said their cluster mailbox has been vandalized and broken for two months.

Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher is asking for an investigation into three local post offices after raising concerns about mail theft and mail service in the Houston area.

A business in Spring fears it’s losing clientele because it hasn’t received any mail in three months.

(AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)HOUSTON – A federal grand jury in Houston indicted five men in a mail theft scheme, federal authorities announced Wednesday. Federal authorities described them all as Honduran nationals and noted that all but Camey were illegally residing in Houston. The 17-count indictment alleges multiple mail thefts throughout the Houston area beginning in mid-2019 and continuing through the end of 2020. Federal authorities said the conspirators would look for checks within the stolen mail and alter them to deposit into accounts the conspirators controlled. AdIf convicted, the defendants face up to 30 years in prison for the conspiracy and bank fraud counts and five years if convicted of the mail theft.

With the coronavirus pandemic altering lots of holiday plans this year, shippers are preparing for a significant increase in the number of packages that will need to be delivered. Here are the shipping deadlines you need to know if you want your packages to arrive by Dec. 25. Postal ServiceFor the lower 48 states:Dec. 15 -- Retail Ground ServiceDec. 18 -- First-Class Mail ServiceDec. 19 -- Priority Mail ServiceDec. 23 -- Priority Mail Express ServiceFor Alaska:Dec. 18 -- First-Class Mail ServiceDec. 19 -- Priority Mail ServiceDec. 21 -- Priority Mail Express ServiceFor Hawaii:Dec. 15 -- First-Class Mail ServiceDec. 15 -- Priority Mail ServiceDec. 21 -- Priority Mail Express ServiceClick here for international shipping deadlines for USPS. FedExDec. 9 -- FedEx Smart PostDec. 15 -- FedEx Home Delivery, FedEx GroundDec. 21 -- FedEx Express Saver, FedEx 3Day FreightDec. 22 -- FedEx 2Day, FedEx 2Day A.M., FedEx 2Day FreightDec. 23 -- FedEx 1Day Freight, FedEx Extra Hours, FedEx Standard Overnight, FedEx Priority Overnight, FedEx First OvernightDec. 25 -- FedEx SameDay, FedEx SameDay City Priority, FedEx SameDay City DirectClick here for international shipping deadlines for FedEx. UPSDec. 15 -- UPS GroundDec. 21 -- UPS 3 Day SelectDec. 22 -- UPS 2nd Day AirDec. 23 -- UPS Next Day AirDec. 25 -- UPS is closed, but UPS Express Critical is availableShipments to certain destinations may require an earlier ship date.

All rights reserved)HOUSTON – A 24-year-old Houston man has been arrested on charges of mail theft, federal authorities announced Monday. In a news release, U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick’s office, citing a complaint, said local authorities conducted a traffic stop on Nov. 5 which led to a search of Rosario’s vehicle. Inside, law enforcement found over 100 pieces of unopened and opened mail in the names of others, federal authorities said. An inventory of the mail pieces revealed letters, financial checks as well as an unopened mail-in ballot for the State of Washington, according to the charges. Federal authorities said law enforcement immediately forwarded the ballot to election authorities in Washington.

HOUSTON – Katherine Green has a small mountain of shipping boxes growing inside her home, and she has no idea why they’re being sent. 22 of those packages are shipping boxes with 25 items each. “I got labels another week, then I got a couple of more little smaller packages the next week,” said Green. Postal Service several times to let them know she never ordered the boxes. “But they were not going to pick it up.”The packages are coming from a third-party contractor that delivers for the postal service.

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – No one has a good feeling after a string of mail thefts in the northwest Harris County neighborhoods of Canyon Lakes at Stonegate, Towne Lake, and Stone Gate near Cypress. Someone has been using a device and breaking into the neighborhoods' mailboxes for the past several weeks. Murtaza Surtarwala snapped a picture a couple of weeks ago driving his son to school. “As soon as I saw that I had a feeling that somebody maybe had stolen something from the mailbox,” said Surtarwala. “We try to go out of our way to make sure that we send tracking numbers,” said Sutarwala.

HOUSTON – With concerns about mail delivery issues ahead of the election, our KPRC Investigates team put the United States Postal Service in Houston to the test. Mail service put to the testTo find out how common problems are we set up our own test. We sent letters to Southwest Houston, Kingwood, Missouri City, Tomball, West Houston, North Houston, The Woodlands, Cypress, Galveston, Liberty County, and Montgomery County. While no one at the postal service would talk to us about delivery issues, we did some digging and found out some interesting information about mail delivery timing. If you are having issues with your mail delivery, you should report it to the United States Postal Service.

Question: I am over 65 years old and have voted by mail in previous elections. Will I automatically receive a ballot or need I reapply? Answer: Voters who are 65 years of age or older can apply for an annual ballot, meaning their Vote by Mail option will be registered for the entire calendar year. Voters who opt for this option will need to reapply each calendar year for an annual Vote by Mail ballot. Ballot by mail applications must be received by the Harris County Clerk’s Office no later than Friday, October 23.

HOUSTON – The Harris County Clerk’s Office reported Monday that they’ve hit a record number of votes by mail for a primary runoff election. In the first week, a total of 79,818 voters cast their ballots. The number of mail ballots has increased due to a surge in voters 65 years of age and older who are opting to vote from home. It’s important to note that in early June, the County Clerk’s Office sent mail ballot applications to every registered voter aged 65 and up in Harris County due to concerns related to COVID-19. Voters who are not able to vote by mail should take advantage of the last few days of early voting,” Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins is quoted as saying in a news release.

Fifty years ago, the former Post Office Department changed over and became the United States Postal Service. Postal Service, as we know it now, has only been around since 1970? Energized by the Civil Rights Movement, postal workers in New York went on strike, and the movement eventually swelled across the country. Previously, letters were taken to a Post Office, where employees would note the postage due (or paid) in the upper right corner. Postal Service stands financially, perhaps we do have to consider, what if the mail goes away someday?

High school graduates on Joshua Crowell's mail route in New Hampshire are finding special letters in their mailboxes. His effort is among the many ways people are trying to make high school graduation special during the coronavirus pandemic. On Saturday, for example, celebrities and even former presidents came together to honor them with CNN's "Class of 2020: In This Together" and LeBron James' "Graduate Together: America Honors the High School Class of 2020." Crowell has delivered 25 of the graduation cards so far, and said he is just getting started. US Postal Service worker Joshua Crowell has a selection of signed cards for this year's graduating class.

So, the fifth-grader decided to ramp up her letter writing. Emerson, who already wrote an average five to 10 letters per week, opted to drop an extra note to her own mailman. In return, she's gotten dozens of letters, a sign of how important human connection is during the pandemic, said her dad, who shared the story in a Twitter thread. Now, Emerson is writing up to 25 letters each week to respond to her new postal pen pals. "Writing letters is just very helpful to feel like I can still be around people."

Postal Service offers a free service that can help. If you get a picture of an IRS envelope, you know it is likely your stimulus check. If their Informed Delivery notification shows you only received junk mail, there’s no need to go out and pick it up. Once you sign up, the USPS says it typically takes about three business days to start receiving those notification emails. Not every address is eligible for Informed Delivery.

Postal Service worker from Virginia admitted to officials that he was renting a storage unit to hide thousands of pieces of mail he could not “make time” to deliver, federal authorities said. Jason Delacruz told agents with the Office of Inspector General that he felt “pressured” to deliver the mail but couldn’t “make time” to finish his route. The mailman came under investigation by agents after a complaint stated Delacruz was seen unloading his USPS truck at a storage unit. Court documents reveal that Delacruz began to hide mail in late 2018. Delacruz said he rented the $49-per-month storage unit “for the sole purpose of storing mail he could not deliver.”According to agents, Delacruz had intentions to deliver the mail but couldn’t catch up and was not able to do so.

HOUSTON – Dozens of packages and letters were dumped on the side of the freeway Monday night in Liberty County. Postal metal crates lying in the middle of the freeway. Witnesses say the postal driver did not stop when the crates fell off. Postal inspectors were called, and then deputies put the mail back into the containers and called a wrecker to haul it away. We can confirm that a contract driver did experience an incident where some mail fell from a trailer, but all mail was quickly retrieved, secured and taken to the N. Houston Processing and Distribution facility for processing.”