GREENSBORO, N.C. — Greensboro Police said someone with a gun robbed a mail carrier at Stonesthrow Apartments Thursday morning.
The United States Postal Services worker called 911, "it's a young guy. He approached me with a gun and he demanded my keys. The main lock keys for the mailboxes," the USPS employee said to the operator.
This is now the third attack on postal workers in Greensboro just this week.
Two mail carriers, both a part of the National Association of Letter Carriers told WFMY News 2's Nixon Norman that these threats have been growing over the years. Now they want something done.
They said since 2020, over 2,000 of these crime events have taken place across the country.
It's a reality that's hard to face.
"It's heartbreaking to hear when I get a call from one of the carriers or from management telling me what happened to somebody," Greensboro USPS Letter Carrier and President of the Greensboro Branch 630 of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Anthony Kennedy said.
It's especially hard for letter carriers like Kennedy. He's been delivering mail in Greensboro for five years now.
"I actually deal with the victims one on one," Kennedy said.
The NALC started keeping stats of these robberies in the southeast region, including North Carolina, starting back in November of 2022.
Since then, there have been 27 robberies in the state with six taking place since Saturday, three of them being in Greensboro. The most recent occurring on South Holden Road at Stonesthrow Apartments.
Kennedy said it has everyone on edge, "coming to work and having to worry about my life being on the line does make you fearful."
It's something Dexter Lester, Regional Administrative Assistant of NALC Region 9 can relate to.
"I'm a carrier of 25 years, I've carried in Winston-Salem, I know what they're going through and we do have that fear. I have that fear even though I'm not carrying, I have that fear for that carrier who experiences that," Lester said.
He said often times these criminals aren't targeting your mail, they are targeting the master key from carriers to get to your information, "they're mostly looking for checks that they can clean and wipe, that's their easiest access," Lester said.
Kennedy wonders what it will take to see change before someone in our backyard looses their life over a piece of mail.
NALC is taking these concerns to the house and senate. The union hopes for harsher punishments against these criminals and government funding to transition physical master keys to digital ones across the country.