USPS service in some areas has been sliding downhill for a while now. Starting around the beginning of this millenium, I've been getting other people's mail, and I assume some other people sometimes get mine. It would happen usually once a week, but not on the same day of the week. I would deliver the mail I got to the correct address. But often I would just be missing my mail altogether. The person who recieved it probably just threw it in the garbage. The ad flyers I don't care about, but important bills and other correspondence I did need. I live in carrier route 53, which is the far southeast corner of my city. It's not as easy to get in and out of as the central part of town. It has been hard to get carriers for this route, the turn over has been very high.
A few years ago, a carrier was arrested on a federal postal delivery interference charge for taking the bins of mail ( approximately 600 pounds ) he was supposed to deliver and dumping them in a wooded area nearby. He was fired, but the federal charges were dropped. None of that mail got delivered.
In 2019, 5 bins of mail-in ballots were found sitting on the shipping dock of the post office in my town. They were found two months after the voting was over. And they weren't hidden. They were just sitting on the dock occupying a loading space.
Some of the new homes in my neighborhood have mail slots in their front doors rather than mail boxes. The bundles of ad flyers have become so large, they won't fit through the slots. So the carrier picks out whatever mail looks important, and slips that into the slot. The rest of the bundles she puts in my mailbox. I have to go through it to check for anything that looks important, and toss the rest out. I e-mail the person who is supposed to get it that they can pick it up at my house.
Some routes in my town don't have these problems, the carriers don't have to walk as far and carry such heavy sacks. But it could be worse. Some routes in Chicago require you to pick up your mail at the local post office. They don't have carriers. Too many of them getting shot or robbed.
Then, of course, there are the porch pirates. That is another problem altogether. So far, no one arrested for stealing packages from houses has received any significant sentencing. Mostly 3 or 6 months probation. Then they get picked up again for the same thing.
