Keeping mail and packages from being stolen

Mail and packages are easiest to steal while they sit in a mailbox or on a doorstep. From 2019 to 2024, Postal Inspectors arrested almost 9,300 suspects for stealing mail and packages. Cut the time mail and packages spend outside, watch for what's due, and follow up quickly when something is missing.

Getting it in fast

• Pick up the mail promptly
• A plan for packages when you're outIf you can't be home for a delivery, make another arrangement. From the Informed Delivery dashboard you can schedule a redelivery for another day or leave delivery instructions for your carrier.
• Hold Mail before a tripUSPS Hold Mail keeps your mail at the local Post Office for at least 3 and at most 30 days. Request it up to 30 days ahead, or as late as 3 a.m. Eastern on the day it starts. The first request means signing in to USPS.com and verifying your identity, which you do once for each address. For an absence longer than 30 days, a forwarding service takes over.

Seeing what's coming

• Informed DeliveryThe free service emails a daily preview of the letter-sized mail and the packages due to arrive, with grayscale images of the address side of each letter. To sign up, create a USPS.com account and verify your identity and address. A letter that shows in the preview and never arrives is worth a call to the sender. Most ZIP Codes are eligible, but the mailbox needs its own coded address, which some apartment and condo buildings don't have.
• Package and delivery alertsIn the Informed Delivery settings, turn on package tracking alerts by text or email, and the Mail Delivery Notification emails that say when the mail has come.
• Multifactor authentication on the USPS accountAdd it to the USPS.com account that runs Informed Delivery and Hold Mail.

Sending and moving

• No cash in the mail
• Hold for Pickup on packages you sendThe person you're sending to collects the package at their local Post Office, so it never waits on a doorstep.
• Signature Confirmation for anything importantIt asks for the intended recipient's signature at delivery.
• A change of address when you moveFile it with the Postal Service, and tell your banks and card companies as well. First-Class Mail is then forwarded free for 12 months, so the mail stops landing in a box you no longer check. Filing online carries a $1.25 identity verification fee in 2026.

When something doesn't arrive

• A check, a card or other valuable mail that's lateContact the sender as soon as you can and ask about it.
• A package that shows delivered but isn't thereCheck the tracking history and any delivery instructions you left for the carrier in your Informed Delivery dashboard.