Berkeley community hasn't gotten mail delivered in more than 150 days
BERKELEY, Calif. - A rent-controlled apartment building on Milvia Street in Berkeley has been left without mail delivery for more than five months.
Jane Stillwater, 81, is a disabled woman who said she’s been forced to wait outside for her mail or find a way to travel to the post office. Now, she’s suing US Postal Service.
Stillwater said her mail stopped being delivered in late August 2023, and USPS told her they could not deliver her mail due to a broken or missing master lock. The USPS is responsible for replacing and maintaining the lock.
It became more than an inconvenience to pick it up at the mail sub-station three miles from home.
"We’re not exactly mobile," she said. "I am pissed off."
Another neighbor at the building, Islah Ali, said she missed out on important documents from her doctor, because they were never delivered and she did not know they were waiting at the post office.
"It’s just been really difficult, not being able to get your mail," Ali said, who is also disabled and walks with a cane. "You have to rely on somebody else to take you to the post office if you can’t get there yourself."
12 units share a set of mailboxes. The mail carrier is supposed to have a master key to the master lock, which opens all the boxes, so they can deliver the mail to individual units.
In September, Stillwater said USPS told her they only had one technician to install all broken or missing master locks from Vallejo all the way down to Hayward.
"That’s a lot of people and a lot of mailboxes, but they assured me that I was on their list," said Stillwater.
Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months, and still no mail.
Stillwater said she reached out to the USPS Office of Inspector General in DC and Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who told her they were working on it.
In the meantime, she kept trying to catch the mail carrier each day.
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"I was like standing in the rain with my umbrella looking for my mail carrier," she said.
Last month, Stillwater said USPS called her and let her know a new lock was coming and would be installed within seven days, but two weeks went by.
"Finally, out of desperation, I called Channel 2, and within a half an hour – boom, the lock was installed, so I was happy," she said.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson from USPS told KTVU they were "sending someone today to assess the damage and prioritize repair."
Later that afternoon, Stillwater told KTVU a lock has been installed, but the mail carrier did not have a key to unlock it and deliver the mail.
Stillwater was flabbergasted. "What? You don’t have the key?! You’ve got the lock, but you don’t have the key?"
She filed a complaint earlier this week, citing damages for the five months she was forced to travel to the post office or stand on the curb.
A spokesperson from USPS told KTVU that residents there can expect mail delivery starting Friday.
In general, when mail delivery is disrupted, the spokesperson said, "Our aim is to resolve postal issues as soon as possible."
The spokesperson did not know why or how the original lock was damaged.