On Tue, 14 Feb 2017 10:03:52 -0500, wrote:

I have personally seen one case of rural mail theft - I found a
bunch of mail in the ditch

A few years ago, I was following behind a snow plow on a rural state
route. Everyone on the road had a rural mailbox mounted near the
road. Many of them were plastic boxes that fit over a 4x4 that is
cemented into the soil. The show plow was shooting a significant
amount of snow up and to the right. When it came to one particular
mailbox, the whole plastic thing was lifted off the 4x4 and shot about
20 feet into the air. The box opened and the next thing I saw was
about a dozen letters floating down into the ditch like confetti. I
couldn't stop thinking about what the home onwner would think after
finding his mailbox in the ditch with his mail scattered all over the
place. Vandals? Theft? I doubt a department of transportation snow
plow driver would be the first suspect.