Raiders return to Featherston post box

NOT AGAIN: Featherston Fire Brigade volunteers on a Saturday morning call-out to collect the mail - or more accurately - the mailbox.PHOTO/ANDREW BONALLACK

For the second time in the space of a month, Featherston's post box, outside the Post Shop on Fitzherbert St, has been uprooted and its contents raided.

The post box was first ransacked over the Easter weekend and this latest raid happened on Friday night.

The box, owned by NZ Post, has not been put back yet.

Marion Schrama, NZ Post regional operations leader, said they were in the process of assessing the damage done over the weekend.

"It is disappointing to hear the post box in Fitzherbert St has been vandalised again so soon after it had been repaired.

"We will seek advice on whether there is anything more we can do to ensure the mail is secure."

Trust House chief executive Allan Pollard said the design of the new NZ Post shop building, which will be built into Trust House's new supermarket complex, didn't include any wall slots into the building but if they could help NZ Post find a solution, they would.

Featherston Fire Brigade treated it as a call-out on Saturday morning, arriving to discover the box upended from its concrete plinth and the doors freely swinging.

Fire chief Colin McKenna found a small sheaf of envelopes remaining, but what else the box contained is not known.

The crew delivered the post box to the Featherston police station.

The story was posted on the Wairarapa Times-Age Facebook page and shared by the Featherston community page.

One poster wondered if it was even safe to post letters in Featherston any more, while a number of others called for a camera to be fitted.

Anyone who thinks they may have lost valuable items in their outgoing mail should contact Featherston police.