Chapter XV: Cases of Loss or Abstraction

1. All cases of alleged loss of mails or letters, or of abstraction of money or articles of value from letters should be promptly and thoroughly investigated.

2. The circumstances attending those cases are so various that it is difficult to lay down any specific rule as to the mode in which the investigation should be conducted.

This must be left to the judgment of the Inspector. The following course, however, may be taken in ordinary cases.

3. The printed form of questions should be filled up by the applicant in each case. If the applicant cannot supply all the particulars required, they should be obtained from such other parties as may be able to furnish them.

4. A "Tracer" should be filled up, and sent to the office at which the letter was posted.

5. The particulars of the cases should be at once entered in the book for the record of applications for lost letters.

6. The papers connected with each case should be enclosed in a printed "Missing Letter Envelope." This should be docketed, the date on which, and the name of the office to which the Tracer was despatched entered thereon, and placed in a pigeon hole appropriated to Missing Letter cases "awaiting answers."

7. A prompt return of the Tracer must in all cases be insisted on. On no account should its unnecessary detention at any office be permitted.

8. If on return of the Tracer it is shown that no loss has occurred, the applicant should be so informed, a memorandum to that effect written on the envelope in which the papers are enclosed, the papers put away amongst cases of application for letters which have been found, and the entry of the case in the record of applications for Lost Letters scored out with a blue pencil.

9. If it is found that a loss has actually taken place, the names of all the offices through which the letter passed, or should have passed, should be carefully recorded in the book of record of applications for missing letters. These offices should then be carefully indexed and a minute examination made with the object of ascertaining whether any of the offices through which the letter passed, or should have passed, appears with unusual frequency in other cases of loss, and whether in such event there is any reason either from the resemblance in the character of the losses or the circumstances attending them to suspect that the losses may be attributable to the same office.

10. In the event of frequency of loss at a City Post Office, it should be ascertained through whose hands the missing letter would pass, and an endeavor should in this way be made to concentrate the several losses on the guilty party.

11. It is a well established fact that a person who has once committed theft will continue to steal, and a concentration of cases of loss, in the manner pointed out, will certainly afford a clue to his detection.

12. Commencing each month, number each office consecutively, as it appears in the record of cases of loss or abstraction. This will show:--

1st. The number of cases which have occurred at any particular
office during the month; and

2nd. In each case the relative number of cases affecting each of
the offices through which any lost letter, or letter from which an
abstraction has been affected, has or should have passed.

13. It should be borne in mind that losses or abstractions may have occurred previous to the posting of the letters or after their delivery, and that the occurrence of two or more cases applicable to the same party posting or receiving letters is sufficient, at any rate, to awaken suspicion that the loss may not have taken place in the transit of the letters through the Post Office.

14. In cases of abstraction it is very important that both the cover and the letter from which the alleged abstraction has taken place should be obtained. A very careful and minute examination thereof will, in many cases, enable the Inspector to determine whether any abstraction has really occurred, or, if it has occurred, to narrow the suspicion down to the office where it has actually been committed.

1. Examine the flap of the letter, if necessary, by means of a
magnifying glass, and ascertain if it shows the least sign of
having been opened and re-fastened, either by slight tears in the
paper, marks of dirt, or moisture, or the application of
additional mucilage.

2. Weigh the letter with its alleged contents and see if the
weight corresponds with the amount of postage paid on the letter.

3. Carefully examine the post-marks. If the impressions or
indentations have penetrated from the cover to the letter inside,
ascertain whether there has been any change in the position of the
letter in the envelope between the time it received the post-mark
of one office and the time it received the post-mark of another
office.

This will sometimes enable you to determine at which office the
abstraction was affected.

4. Ascertain if any of the post-marks have penetrated through the
envelope from one side of the letter to the other. In such a case
you may be able to determine whether, at the time the letter was
stamped at any particular office, it actually contained an
enclosure.

15. Cases of alleged abstraction have been brought to light in which it has been proved that paper has been enclosed in letters by the senders instead of the money purported to have been remitted.

The proof consisted of the impressions of the postmarks placed on the letter at the office at which posted having gone through the envelope on to the papers enclosed.

It is, of course, important to ascertain whether the stamps were placed on the letter at the time it was posted.

16. Cases of alleged theft have also been brought to light by the writing on the envelope being in a different hand to the writing in the letter enclosed, by the date of the letter not corresponding with the date of the post-mark of the office at which mailed, and by the dates of the post-marks on the letter showing that it has been subjected to some unusual delay. All these points should, therefore, be closely looked into.

17. In all cases it would be desirable to ascertain at what point the best opportunity for the alleged theft would have been afforded.

18. The evidence in each case of enquiry should be carefully taken down in writing, and every circumstance, however trifling, which may in the slightest degree bear on the case, noted. It is frequently by a collection of apparently unimportant facts that important results are arrived at.

19. Care should be taken in every case to avoid the formation of any opinion until all the facts which it is possible to obtain in regard to it are collected together. It is only from these facts and from the character and antecedents of the parties who may have been concerned in the loss, and not from some suspicion unsupported by facts, that conclusions can with any safety be drawn.

20. All serious cases of loss or abstraction should be at once specially reported to the Postmaster General, and the most prompt action taken thereon.

21. In cases of ascertained loss or abstraction, the Inspector for each Division through which the letter passed should be furnished with full particulars thereof.

22. When there is no moral doubt of guilt, it is desirable that the party suspected should be at once suspended from his duties.

23. It is not advisable however to take criminal proceedings in cases of theft, unless there is a probability of such evidence being obtained as will secure a conviction of the guilty party.