Stamping out Quadrangle mail troubles

The University's mail system and 30th Street Post Office are under investigation after the Quadrangle mailroom received several complaints of lost mail in the last few weeks. Gordon Rickards, senior manager of Residential Operations, estimated that the current number of lost mail complaints hovers around 25, and he expects more to be filed soon. "It's a shame we have to go through this," Rickards said, citing the many phone calls from angry parents and students. "The mail clerks are upset, since they are the first to hear complaints." University officials called a meeting between Penn Mail and University Police last Wednesday to discuss the escalating number of mail-related complaints. University Police Det. Commander Tom King said the problems are being "diligently investigated" by a team headed by U.S. Postal Inspector Lou Recchilongo at 30th Street Post Office. Recchilongo was responsible for the arrest of a 30th Street Post Office employee in February 1996, ending a similar plague of Quad mail theft since 1992. Rickards said he expects that this year's problem is also not rooted in the University's mail system, although he does not have a problem with the investigation of Penn Mail. "We should be investigated, and rightfully so," he said. "We're not hiding anything." The Quad is especially vulnerable to mail tampering and theft because of the volume of "attractive" mail sent there, Recchilongo said. Brightly colored greeting cards, for example, are highly visible to thieves looking to confiscate checks. College senior David Austin said he recently had three MAC cards and four checks of "sizable sum" disappear in the mail. When the Ware College House resident followed up on a complaint he filed with Housing and Residence Life, he was told his mail was in fact stolen. Austin expressed frustration over Residence Life's failure to notify him of the stolen mail. "The situation is not being handled properly," Austin said. "I am a full-time student and do not have the leisure to fill out [complaint] forms regarding something as basic to life as mail. Am I to hire a personal courier to hand-deliver [my checks]?" College freshman John Glick, an Undergraduate Assembly member, said a new UA committee charged to study issues affecting the freshman class plans to look into the matter at its first meeting tonight. "I just hear these stories over and over again," Glick said, adding that his roommate reported a credit card that never reached his Quad mailbox. Rickards said he intends to send a letter to the parents of Quad residents, informing them of the risks of sending valuable or important items through first-class mail. Students should become concerned if mail does not reach them within two weeks of the date sent, he said. The last wave of Quad mail theft culminated in the arrest of Gerald Ricca, a postal clerk at 30th Street Post Office. Ricca pled guilty to three counts of mail theft and three counts of delaying mail in spring 1996. The arrest came after an investigative team planted envelopes containing $130 in cash addressed to the Quad, some of which later turned up in Ricca's home. King said clandestine operations like this require that the current investigation remain quiet. Recchilongo said he hopes his work with University Police will provide a lead in what seems to be a series of related mail problems.

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