The latest Post Office podcast discusses a massive increase in mail thefts since the Trump torture camp. When most people were relying on mail and Amazon and DoorDash, organized crime grabbed the opportunity. Mail thefts, mostly for IDs and checks, increased by a factor of 2. Armed robberies of postmen increased by a factor of 10. Porch piracy increased similarly. Organized crime probably knew what was coming, since Trump was a fully accredited OG in the NYC Mafia before he branched out into the Hollywood Mafia and the DC Mafia.
Take that, fucking “urbanists” who insist that crime is down. Real people know that crime is way up regardless of fake statistics, and don’t have time for politicians who pretend things are wonderful.
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The postal inspectors aren’t fooled by “urbanists” or politicians. They know what’s happening to their carriers, customers, and parcels. Inspectors are ramping up physical enforcement and hardening the collection boxes. They’ve also developed a hi-tech version of a very old gadget formerly used by night watchmen and police patrols.
The Watchclock was an ingenious way of insuring that a watchman made his rounds. The record also made it easier to determine when a crime happened.
Here’s a clock with its strap, and one station with its key. This type of station looks familiar; I used to see them in old college buildings.
Each station was a little box on the wall with a key pivoted or chained inside. The watchman carried a complex Watchclock. When he reached a station he opened the box, pulled out the key and inserted it in the Watchclock, then pulled a lever. The Watchclock contained a circular paper record, calibrated by time, that turned with the hour hand of the clock. When he pulled the lever, the station’s key was pushed against a ribbon and printed the key’s number on the paper. Each key had its own number embossed on the ribbon side, acting like a typewriter hammer. The clock printed the exact time next to the key’s impression.
Here’s a screencap of a watchman recording one station, from an old Mike Barnett TV show. This horizontal station is unfamiliar.
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The new PO version works in reverse.
Postmen have been carrying master keys to collection boxes and apartment buildings for many decades. The master key opens an apartment door, or sometimes just opens a box containing a specific key. There’s no recording in this setup.
Now the computerized master key is the recorder, and the locks impress their location on the software of the master key when the collection box or apt door is opened. Each master key is turned on and off when the postman starts and finishes his shift, so a thief who grabs it won’t be able to use it after this shift. I expect the key can also report when it’s stolen, but the podcast was properly cagey about such details.
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