A little bad luck in 2011...

So, this year hasn't exactly been going my way. It started with the car accident, then I lost my cell phone (not sure if I even posted about that one!) and then we got the bad news about our taxes. I'm trying to stay positive though and make the most of what life is throwing my way. The most recent mishap was that a package my niece sent me with her old cell phone was ripped open and the cell phone and charger were stolen. (I had hoped to use this as a replacement for my phone now that she's on her fiance's plan.) The person was kind enough to leave me the cell phone packaging in the box, but took the other stuff. This picture shows how the box was delivered to my LOCKED mail box.

Needless to say, I was livid! I just felt so violated. I really hate that feeling. I felt helpless. (The only other time I felt that way was when we drove across country and our car was broken into. We had several items stolen, in addition to our passports, social security cards and bank info. Ugh, that was a nightmare!) I don't want to accuse anyone but the only people who had access to the box were the employees of the post office. This package came from MA to CA. Quite a long distance to have been delivered in that condition, which only leads me to believe that the incident happened once it left my local post office, en-route to my house. Usually the PO will tag an item as damaged if they knew about it while it was in their possession. The package had nothing on it.

I called our local PO and the person said he'd check with the driver this week. I have little hope that anything will come out of that. I also emailed the PO itself to formally log a complaint. They said they'll respond within 1-3 days, so we'll see what happens. Unfortunately the package wasn't insured, so I'm not sure that they'll do anything. It's bothersome that we have no real protection against something like that happening to our mail.

Question : Have you had anything stolen from your mail before? If so, were you able to get it resolved or did you just have to deal with it?