USPS inspectors raid Bellmore home, seize bags

Agents from the U.S. Postal Service Office of the Inspector General raided a home in Bellmore on Tuesday morning, seizing dozens of black bags from the property, a USPS spokesman said.

Authorities, citing an ongoing investigation, said they could not confirm details or whether the property on West Alder Road belonged to a postal service employee.

Authorities also declined to say what was inside the bags, which were being reviewed by investigators.

“Office of the Postal Service Inspector General agents were at a home on Alder Road in Bellmore today and they did pull out bags from that location,” USPS Inspector General spokesman Matt Modafferi said.

He said no arrests had been made. Nassau County police assisted Tuesday morning with the seizure of the bags, he said.

Modafferi said USPS agents investigate mail theft and mail dumping and said, “We investigate all those allegations vigorously.”

He declined to say if the recovery Tuesday was related to either mail theft or mail dumping.

Modafferi said the postal service had received “allegations of mishandled mail” from residents in Levittown and Bethpage, but declined to say whether those allegations were connected to the investigation.

A phone number associated with the residential address that was raided was not in service Tuesday.

Modafferi said agents will be reaching out to prosecutors to determine the next step and will need help from the public to build as big a case as possible. He asked people who believe they have been victims of mail fraud, mail dumping or undelivered mail to call the inspector general’s hotline 888-877-7644.

According to the USPS office of the inspector general, its special agents conducted 1,364 internal mail theft investigations between October 2016 and September 2017, the most recent period available. The investigations resulted in 409 arrests and 1,178 administrative actions.

— With Ellen Yan

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com,laura.blasey@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”