Older subdivisions have mailboxes attached to the house, but the Postal Service has been moving away from that for the past two decades. Now, it offers either clustered boxes or curbside mailboxes. But also we're concerned about the security and location of those delivery types. It costs about twice as much to do door delivery, he said, and the cluster system is by far the most efficient. Mail carriers can hit all the homes in a subdivision with one stop, instead of walking through the neighborhood.
Residents complain the cluster boxes are impersonal and detract from a sense of neighborliness.
Colleen Wood, who lives in the Fenton subdivision, walks down to the cluster boxes with her children, but notices most people stop in their car to pick up mail. She has missed two mortgage bills. The family found out they were missing only when they got a letter saying they were two months overdue. They're looking at cost rather than what makes people feel safe, and a sense of community. The case then goes to Postal Inspection Services, whose investigators look for trends and try to find the culprit.