LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The season of giving also means that it's the season of receiving, and many times it's a gift through the mail.
The USPS has been working to keep your packages safe and is even offering a reward if you can help them stop thieves.
Robert Deshields is a United States Postal Investigator working to stop mail crimes in Arkansas and expressed his frustrations with mail theft.
"People try to [steal mail] for financial gain, right? A lot of fraudsters do it because a lot of personal sensitive information that we have in our mail, that we might not realize it," Deshields explained.
USPS reports it had around 38,000 reports of mail theft from collection boxes across the country last year.
"Of course mail increases during the holidays," Deshields explained, "People are often reporting more then because they might be expecting a package to show up."
However, Deshields said if lost mail is reported, it's not forgotten. If a suspect of mail theft is caught, they can face federal charges.
Some of those consequences can look like," Up to five years imprisonment, potentially a $250,000 fine," Deshields said. "So we take mail theft very, very seriously."
The USPS publicized this month that they've increased the reward for anyone with information that helps them stop mail crime.
That includes burglary of the post office, theft of mail or postal service property, and postage tampering which all offer a reward of $100,000.
"If you happen to see, let's say a vehicle traveling in your neighborhood that you don't recognize, or you see a vehicle falling behind the carrier's vehicle, and they're going to mailboxes, right? That's a red flag," Deshields described.
If someone sees that red flag or is missing something from a mailbox, officials ask you to report it to the postal service and the police.
"People look at [mail theft] as a victimless crime because they don't see how mail is and that is substantial," Deshields said,
The postal service said if someone wants to keep eyes on a package, they can also sign up for informed delivery and hang on to their tracking number. And if someone expects to be out of town, the USPS offers a hold service to keep packages at the post office until return.