By Carol Tannenhauser
The police report was only a couple of lines. On Saturday, January 27, at approximately 1:10 p.m., “an individual, who is not an employee of the USPS [United States Postal Service] was observed with a USPS mail carrier [pushcart] in their possession at the intersection of West 84 Street and Central Park West. Toure Gaddis, 41, of Brooklyn, was arrested and charged.”
What the report didn’t say was that Gaddis was picked up because of the quick and fearless action of 20-year veteran mail carrier Yalin Yeh, better known as YaYa.
YaYa, 52, told West Side Rag that there have been four mail pushcart thefts in her area since December, and one of those stolen was hers. That time she found her cart a few blocks away, emptied of mail and packages. So, she knew the scheme: “When the mail carriers are inside delivering the mail and they can’t fit their pushcarts in, people come and push them away. Sometimes they wear uniforms, sometimes not.”
Gaddis was in street clothes when YaYa saw him pushing the cart. “I looked him in the face and knew he was not from our station. So I called my supervisor and he called the police. He put me on the phone with them and they told me to follow him at a distance, and stay on the phone line till they arrived.”
YayYa did. “I didn’t want to see this keep happening,” she said when asked why she took the risk. “When I saw him, I had to do something to protect my cutomers and the post office.”
(Thanks to Kate McMullen for the tip.)
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Nice work, YaYa!!
Nice work, Yaya! And hello to your friend there!
Way to go YaYa , saving people’s mail and loving their dogs! How brave of you!
For the other mail carts and contents that were stolen, how can we find out which routes and who’s mail is missing? Does the USPS notifiy the recipients?
Sorry. No the USPS don’t notify the recipients.
No they don’t notify the individuals. You’re going to have to go on the usps website and contact the inspection service. Also You’re going to have to make a police report.
They do not. When I called, twice, regarding 3 things not received one day (one letter, 2 small packages), they said “Oh that was probably a day the mail was stolen.” Both times, I was told I would be gotten back to; I wasn’t. When I asked details of the stolen mail events, they were very vague and basically gave me no other information.
THANK YOU
Hero!
Fabulous!!!
Thank you Yaya! You’re a hero! We need more like you!! 😇
She’s the kindest mail person! She delivers to my building – always has a
smile, says hello, and cares about the letter/packages she delivers. Great to see that she helped to have someone appropriately reprehended. And, she’s always kind to the pets in the building too!
Hi. Thank you for the kind words🤗
Even I don’t know who you are😅
Let me know when you see me🤗
I hope stealing mail is a Federal crime and Gaddis serves real time for it. Thanks and congratulations to YaYa for going above and beyond so that he could be apprehended and the stolen mail didn’t become a problem for the innocent citizens who depend upon the USPS. Also the dog is really cute.
YaYa is definitely one of the good guys. She goes the extra bit and is not only conscientious but also a dog lover.
Thank you . Judy😘
We need more people like Yaya! Thank you!!!
She’s adorable and so is the doggie! Great work, Yaya!
Hope they brought this to Federal Court and not to NYC Cut em loose DA Brag
Thank you YaYa. I think the city should give you a medal or some other symbol marking your bravery. I hope the Post Office gives you a raise!
Haha. I didn’t even get a shot out from my supervisor 🤣. I don’t need it anyway. Just doing my job.
I got so much love from the UWS community is enough for me.
Yay, yay, Ya Ya!
I always wonder about mail carts left unattended on the sidewalk while the mail carrier goes into buildings. Many times the cart is left for way more than just a minute or two and I feel “obligated” to watch over them . Even if the whole cart isn’t taken it’s so easy to pluck out a few letters or packages. Why hasn’t the postal service addressed this fact of urban life? Couldn’t there be carts with lockable lids that can be chained up to a pole or fence like bikes are?
Unfortunately, there are buildings we can’t pull them into. So we don’t have a choice but to leave them outside. In my 28 years ai have never seen it as bad as it’s been now. We never had as many thefts as we’ve had these past few years. I could leave my cart for long periods of time and never had anything stolen.
Mail carts have been left outside of buildings for decades with rather low average theft rates.
What has changed things are new sort of criminal activity such as check washing which makes mail a tempting target.
Over years there has been a huge increase in credit/charge, debit and gift cards being issued. This is happening along with rise in new technology (computers, smart phones and other devices…) , Once someone gets a card it can be quite easy to drain a bank account or run up fraudulent charges.
Financial institutions and other issuers of such cards have tried to step up their game with things such as two-step verification. However that often requires giving card issuer personal information that some aren’t comfortable doing such as mobile telephone number.
Rest of it is what it has always been, theft of packages or other parcel post containing merchandise.
Mail has been stolen several times on riverside and the nineties.
Yup.
Good for you, YaYa! I think you serve a commendation and a check $$$$$.
Ya Ya was the greatest mail person we ever had. She was great to us, wonderful to our Dachshund. We moved a year ago , and we all miss her. She does deserve a medal, for many reasons.
Thank you so much . Susan. I miss you all😘
YEA for YaYa ! Best mail person and crime stopper too.
Haha. David. Thank you. Miss you😘
BRAVA!!!
Lady YaYa is a heroine! Thank you!
Mail carriers need to be more circumspect with their mail carts. There’s a lot more they can do to protect the mail. It’s not accurate that carts can’t be taken into all buildings due to space constraints. If a tenant can get a couch, refrigerator, or stroller in the building, a carrier can get their cart inside. It’s just laziness that prevents them from doing so. To leave a cart outside unwatched, especially at the end of the month when thieves know that Social Security checks are in the mail, is not acceptable.
Really? Tenant get their couch, fridge in the building every day ? They carry those big item without help? Carrier jut by themself. I wish you can show me carry the full push cart up to 10 steps for 50 brownstones a day. Sometimes the mailbox is all the way inside the building. Maybe they should change have the mailbox all outside the sidewalk then.
I agree that the mailboxes should be outside on the sidewalk level for those buildings. There are secure ways to do that.
SSA, SSDI, Treasury/IRS and other government agencies have been doing all they can to wean people off paper checks and going with direct deposit. Same goes for unemployment checks.
If one has a bank account there is no reason to have paper checks mailed from SSA or any other listed above.
Direct deposit is safe, secure and money arrives faster than waiting around for paper checks. It also save seniors or anyone else walking around with large amounts of money after just cashing their SS checks.
Tell me something I don’t know already. Many people don’t want to use Direct Deposit for various reasons. All a mail thief has to do is find a couple of checks to make it worth their while to grab a mail cart.
YaYa you deserve a medal and a cash bonus for your thoughtfulness and commitment. Thank you for your help!
Also the Post Office needs new carts that are enclosed/locked and that yes, can be chained to a sign post or bike rack. This person Gaddis needs to be charged at the federal level and thrown in jail for a substantial amount of time.
Theft will keep on happening unless this crime has consequences like it used to. Everyone who posts on WSR needs to write to our city council members to voice concerns about the consequences of bail “reform” since Carl Heastie and company think that this new normal is A-OK.
Theft of mail is, in fact, a federal crime. Local DAs and city council members have nothing to do with enforcement of federal laws. People complaining about politics would be well-advised to first study their civics textbooks so they know what they’re complaining about.
Decades ago now mail carriers had sacks the slung over their shoulders. Those bags went with them into buildings so that was that. However volume of mail over decades has grown and for other reasons use of carts was begun.
Some carriers will bring cart into buildings along their route, others for various reasons do or cannot. Sadly those unattended carts nowadays are sitting ducks far as theft targets are concerned.
Criminals are stealing mail carts, keys to collection and other boxes, attacking and robbing carriers, lifting mail out of collection boxes. It’s really become in many ways open season on USPS system.
Check washing has reached epidemic levels. So much so LE and USPS among others are asking (or begging) people to stop writing paper checks.
https://www.urbancny.com/consumer-alert-the-new-york-department-of-states-division-of-consumer-protection-provides-tips-to-avoid-check-washing-scams/
https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/ap-top-news/2023/06/13/cases-of-check-fraud-escalate-dramatically-with-americans-warned-not-to-mail-checks-if-possible
Believe it or not people still send cash via mail. It’s mainly older generation doing things like sending bit of cash to grandchildren or someone as a small gift. Thieves look out for envelopes likely containing greeting cards…..
I’ve had multiple checks stolen out of post office drop boxes and fraudulently deposited. Also multiple USPS delivered packages stolen from my buildings vestibule. The mail system is totally broken on the UWS.
Our wonderful, long-time mail carrier had his mailbag stolen in December. We live on UWS in the 90s. He told me 4 other mail carriers had bags (and sometime entire carts) stolen thatt week. We are subscribed to “informed delivery” through USPS and I knew a new Medicare card was being delivered. It never arrived, so was probably in the stolen mail. Same thing happened in the building next door. I called the Federal USPS and registered a stolen mail/fraud claim. That was over a month ago. To date, NO notice from NYC USPS alerting residents of stolen mail. To date, NO communication from the federal USPS regarding stolen mail. My advice? Do NOT send anything important through USPS mail. It is a hot mess.
This is why YaYa is the best!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Thank God it wasn’t the mail carrier on the Upper West Side who walks around with his face buried in his phone wqtching videos while delivering packages all day. He would never have noticed anything amiss.
Brava!!
This woman deserves more than praise in the WSR. Can her name be given to anyone in authority who could publicly recognize her bravery ~ such as the mayor, the USPS in D.C. etc.?
YaYa was our mail carrier pre-pandemic. Always greeted folks with a smile and had a pocketful of treats for her canine friends. It’s good to see she’s still in the neighborhood doing a great job while smiling and cuddling dogs. Way to go, YaYa!! Thank you!! We miss you!
For those that still insist on writing paper checks ditch ballpoint or other pens for the gel/anti fraud/secure type.
While not 100% sure to prevent check fraud these gel type pens do make check washing difficult. Certainly better than using ballpoint or marker pens.
Only other main option would be obtaining an electronic check writer similar to machines used at banks or USPS to create counter checks, money orders, cashiers checks, certified checks and so forth.
Also it isn’t wise to use bank counter checks (those without account holder’s name printed). Check washing can easily remove any name written or other information.
We love Yaya, such a friendly person who loves dogs so much. Really pleased for her.