Chicago USPS letter carrier locks herself in Pilsen foyer while men steal mail

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Mail carriers have been the target of several thefts reported just this week. One postal worker said they watched thieves steal mail and packages while they were on their route Thursday.

Mail was being delivered in that section of Pilsen Friday, a day after the U.S. Postal Inspection Service confirms property of the U.S. Postal Service was stolen.

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"It happened so fast, it really scared me, it caught me off guard," said the letter carrier, who didn't want to be identified. "I was like, is this happening right now?"

"It's absolutely horrible, just a mail carrier doing her job," resident Kim Olms said.

Surveillance video captured from a distance shows what the letter carrier described: she said one guy grabbed the packages and a second guy grabbed her letters while she locked herself into a residential foyer.

RELATED: US Postal Service mail carrier robbed at gunpoint in Hinsdale

"It was just instinct, when I saw the guy because he startled me, so my instincts was like, fight or flight," the letter carrier said. "So I instantly thought to lock myself in the hallway."

Her scary ordeal comes after a letter carrier was robbed at gunpoint Thursday in Bucktown and another incident on Oak Park Tuesday.

The president of the letter carriers union said there have been at least five robberies or thefts from letter carriers in the Chicagoland area in the last week.

Another letter carrier, who also did not want to be identified, commented on the recent incidents.

"It's scary, real scary, just trying to do your job," the postal worker said. "A job that a lot of people don't want to do and you can't do the job without being in fear."

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is investigating as letter carriers around our area continue delivering mail.