Mail robbery is the

robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...

mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letter (message), letters, and parcel (package), parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid ...

usually when it is in the possession, custody, or control, of the delivering authority, which in most countries is the

postal operator This is a list of postal entities by country. It includes: *The governmental authority responsible for postal matters. *The regulatory authority for the postal sector. Postal regulation may include the establishment of postal policies, postal rate ...

and can involve the theft of money or luxury goods.

History

In the UK

stage coach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

(from 1784 Mail coach) robberies by

highwaymen A highwayman was a robber who stole from travellers. This type of thief usually travelled and robbed by horse as compared to a footpad who travelled and robbed on foot; mounted highwaymen were widely considered to be socially superior to foot ...

were common, despite the death penalty. For example, in 1722 two were executed for robbing the Bristol mail. Robberies from trains also began early. An early example was on the

Bristol and Exeter Railway The Bristol & Exeter Railway (B&ER) was an English railway company formed to connect Bristol and Exeter. It was built on the broad gauge and its engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It opened in stages between 1841 and 1844. It was allied with t ...

in 1849. In the USA, the period immediately following the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

witnessed a large number of mail robberies. Eventually, the frequency of these thefts caused the Department of the Navy to place armed

Marines Marines, or naval infantry, are typically a military force trained to operate in littoral zones in support of naval operations. Historically, tasks undertaken by marines have included helping maintain discipline and order aboard the ship (ref ...

on all mail trains. A number of high-value mail robberies occurred in the UK after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, as a result of a lack of improvements in security in the transport of money. One major example was the Eastcastle Street robbery in 1952, involving the theft of £287,000 from a post office van in London. Overall that year, 629 mailbags went missing, and in the following year the figure was 738. The two most significant mail robberies both occurred in the early 1960s. In the UK, £2.6 million was taken in the ' Great Train Robbery' of 1963. A year earlier, $1.5 million was stolen from the hold-up of a U.S. Mail truck in

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. By the end of the 1960s, however, mail robbery had become less common.

References

Robbery Postal systems Organized crime activity {{crime-stub

History

See also

References