Police are urging individuals to control postboxes and to report any details about thefts.
Greater than 110 publish packing containers had been stolen final 12 months (Picture: Getty)
Fears have been raised after postbox thefts have occurred throughout the nation, with police suspecting the enduring crimson packing containers could also be overseas. In keeping with police, greater than 110 publish packing containers had been stolen final 12 months, and a Royal Mail spokesperson mentioned the corporate is working with the charity Crimestoppers to encourage individuals to share details about the thefts.
Cheshire is likely one of the UK areas that has seen such thefts, with 4 stolen final 12 months. PC Jonathan Lightfoot, a rural crime officer with Cheshire Police, believes that the “decorative” postboxes are being stolen to be displayed exterior properties.
He added: “We’d assume they is perhaps going overseas as properly. Now individuals have stolen these postboxes, they’re gone, that historical past has left.”
UK postboxes had been first launched within the Channel Islands after Anthony Trollope, a Submit Workplace clerk and later novelist, noticed them utilized in continental Europe. Inexperienced postboxes had been then rolled out throughout mainland Europe from 1853 till they grew to become the standardised iconic crimson within the 1870s.
Chris Taft, collections supervisor on the Postal Museum, says the beloved postboxes are part of the nation’s id and that crimes are “horrible”.
“We’re trialling 3D scanning software program the place we’ll construct a 3D mannequin of the postbox after which we’ll have a report of what it appears to be like like.
“So if we discover one that’s stolen, then we will examine it to data of ones we have already scanned and show that that is from there.”
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