The U.S. Postal Service is offering a $50,000 reward after a mail carrier was shot during an attempted robbery in Chicago Monday and another carrier was robbed minutes later about three miles away.
The shooting occurred around 3:30 p.m. in the 3200 block of North Kildare Avenue in Kilbourn Park on the Northwest Side, according to police.
Two people approached the carrier, 52, and one of them pulled out a gun and fired, hitting the carrier in the leg. He was taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center in critical condition.
Around 3:45 p.m., a carrier was robbed at gunpoint in the 1800 block of North Sawyer in Logan Square. The postal service said the two robberies may be related and released a description of one of the suspects and the car used.
The car was described as a stolen white Kia sedan with the Illinois license plate BF73931. One suspect was described as wearing a light gray hooded sweatshirt, gray pants with “Reebok” wrapped around the left pant leg, Jordan sneakers with a blue crown emblem and blue stripes, and a backwards blue cap with stickers on the cap’s orange bill.
Anyone with information can call the postal service at (877) 876-2455.
Robberies of mail carriers have tripled in the last three years.
Elise Foster, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers branch in Chicago, said the U.S. Postal Service hasn’t done enough to address it.
Criminals target letter carriers for their master keys that unlock mailboxes throughout a ZIP code. With those keys, they can steal mail, allowing them to wash and rewrite checks, or sell the keys to other criminals.
In June, a postal worker was robbed at gunpoint while delivering mail in the Beverly neighborhood.
On Monday, thieves used a saw to cut open a public mailbox outside a post office in south suburban Orland Park. Police urged anyone who used the mailbox at 9500 West 144th Place to monitor their accounts for unusual activity.
