5 Chicago Residents Charged With Possessing USPS Master Keys & Stealing Mail

Five Chicago residents have been charged with possession of USPS master keys or stealing mail. The charges were brought against the residents following an investigation coined “Operation Broken Arrow”.

The trend of stealing USPS keys has been something that has been on the increase throughout 2022. We have covered numerous instances of USPS workers being held up and robbed for their master keys, including this event that was caught on a doorbell camera.

Savannah S. Shandor, 29, of Chicago, Joseph T. Solomon, 37, of Norridge, Thaddeus J. Harper, 42, of Chicago, Shaun A. White, 25, of Chicago, and Jordan J. McPhearson, 31, of Chicago are all charged with unlawfully possessing a USPS master key.

Shandor, Solomon, and Harper are also charged with stealing pieces of mail, authorities said.

USPS On High Alert As Holidays Approach

Unfortunately, the run-up to the holidays often sees a noticeable increase in the number of mail thefts and porch pirate instances. Most likely due to the expensive time of the year, and with the current economic climate, 2022 could be even worse than normal.

This is why it is important that the USPS and federal investigators can be seen like in this case in Chicago to be taking firm action to punish those who commit these crimes.

“It is illegal under federal law to possess a stolen or reproduced key suited to a U.S. Postal Service lock,” said U.S. Attorney Lausch.  “We will continue to work with our federal and local law enforcement partners to hold accountable anyone who unlawfully possesses such a key or steals from the mail.”

Unlawfully possessing a postal service key is punishable by a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and theft of mail carries a maximum sentence of five years.

Dave Furness

Dave is a Co-Founder of eSeller365. For over 10 years he has been involved with eCommerce with a particular interest in the marketplaces and the huge opportunities available for sellers when utilizing a multi-channel strategy. After a year of being the UK’s youngest eCommerce consultant, he built an education platform called UnderstandingE that showed the world how to utilize Magento as the “Third Generation of Multi-Channel software”.

Dave has also created a YouTube channel dedicated to entrepreneurship and eCommerce as well as a podcast dedicated to mental health awareness. When Dave isn’t working his main interests include learning and playing Chess, researching the Crypto and NFT space, and trying to find the nearest beach.