Bayfield resident Josie Montoya is frustrated. For years between December and February, mail has gone missing from her mailbox on Bayfield Parkway. In January, it happened again.

“We’ve lost things like medical documents and paperwork that I’ve had sent to me for my auto insurance,” Montoya said, adding books, Christmas gifts and cards to the list. “You name it. If it fits in that box, it has gone missing in the winter.”

Montoya isn’t the only one in town who has concerns about mail security, but addressing the issue is more complicated than it seems.

While residents are sharing experiences of mail theft, official reports are few and far between, according to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Bayfield Marshal’s Office. The local postmaster requested the town create clustered mailboxes, but the town is in the early stages of considering the idea after dropping it in 2019.

“If more people understood the process of how to even report this ... it might really make a larger impact on how the town receives the information as well as how we can move forward,” Montoya said.

Montoya said she has found about 13 people who have concerns about mail theft in Bayfield.

In January, another resident shared on Facebook that a row of mailboxes at the end of Mesa Avenue were left open and empty after a theft.

In an email shared by the town of Bayfield, Postmaster Victoria Delsid asked the town to reconsider creating centralized delivery. She said the former mayor and town manager proposed the idea to the local post office in 2019, but the project was ultimately abandoned.

“I understand that it is an expense for the town to purchase eight centralized boxes, however, there are customers who are regularly the victims of theft and they are asking me what can be done,” she wrote in the email.

Delsid declined to comment directly to The Durango Herald, referring questions to the U.S. Postal Service public relations office.

While reports of theft are showing up at the local post office and on social media, enforcement agencies aren’t seeing them.

In Bayfield, “based on what I saw in the report system, there’s no indication of a problem that’s being reported to us,” said Eric Manuel, a postal inspector with the USPIS, the enforcement agency for postal crimes.

“That doesn’t mean there’s not a problem. ... It could simply mean people don’t know to report to our agency,” he said.

The Bayfield Marshal’s Office said it received no reports of mail theft in 2019 or 2020.

“We don’t necessarily get a lot of mail theft here in town. It seems like it’s every once in a while,” said Joe McIntyre, Bayfield marshal. “It seems like it’s more in the county.”

The La Plata County Sheriff’s Office said it had a case this week. A deputy discovered two opened packages on County Road 234.

“A lot of times you see an increase in mail thefts especially around the holidays,” McIntyre said. “There’s times when it just comes in spurts.”

When it comes to addressing mail security, many solutions fall on residents.

For example, they should check their mail every day, Manuel said. If that’s not possible, people should coordinate with neighbors or ask the delivery service to hold the package for pickup. Households can also buy locking mailboxes, he said.

If someone’s mail is stolen, Manuel said they should report the theft directly to uspis.gov or by calling (877) 876-2455.

People may be stealing packages at random or searching for personal identifying information for crimes like financial fraud or identity theft, he said.

If mail might have been stolen, he advised residents to watch bank accounts and report unusual activity to the USPIS, in addition to the bank.

“The big way you can get support from the USPIS is to report information through these official means,” Manuel said. “That’s what I really want to stress.”

But Montoya has tried reporting. Now, she is pushing for centralized clusters of boxes – the same thing the postmaster requested.

The postmaster’s suggestion to create three sets of clustered mailboxes along Bayfield Parkway would cost an estimated $25,000, said Katie Sickles, Bayfield town manager.

The town has been asked to fund the installation of a concrete pad for clustered mailboxes in the past. That’s common, Sickles said. Relocating individual boxes can improve street maintenance access and vehicle or pedestrian safety.

What’s less common is also asking the town to fund the cluster boxes themselves, she said.

“The town is not in the mail business; however, we are in the street maintenance and vehicle/pedestrian safety business,” she said.

In the meantime, the current option for residents is to get a post office box or buy a more secure mailbox. Montoya is trying to figure out how she should replace her mailbox, which was damaged in January.

“What I’ve been trying to do is reach out to anyone who has had mail problems to write a small letter of concern and deliver them to the town,” Montoya said. “This has been a huge problem for 10, 15 years.”

smullane@durangoherald.com