A tug-of-war of sorts between the post office and patrons is erupting with tossed mail stacking up on lobby counters, then being put back in the same mailboxes where it originated.

Mail at the downtown post office Tuesday was visibly piling up on lobby counters, some on the floor.

Today, Postmaster William Kersch said the post office, by law, cannot throw the mail away. The patron has to be responsible for that.

He said the mail needs to be taken out the doors. It’s up to the patron.

But since trash and recycling bins were removed last week, patrons are exhibiting a little stubbornness, Kersch said.

Post office employees are having to spend time going through the stacked mail to put it back in the boxes where it came from.

He said the customers will be given three warnings if the same mail keeps ending up in their boxes. After the third warning, the box will be locked.

“They are fighting the policy, being defiant,” one post office employee said.

“Some of these people are out of line,” Kersch said.

“But we are not doing this as any kind of penalty. It’s actually for the customer’s protection,” he said.

Kersch began last week enforcing a two-year-old mandate by the U.S. Postal Service to remove trash cans from the lobby when he found a person sifting through the mail deposited in one of the recycling containers.

Kersch later learned the same person had been arrested for identity theft after a previous incident.

That sparked Kersch to remove all the trash containers from the post office lobbies.

“This community has been stung by over $50,000 due to identity theft,” Kersch said.

“We have to stick by the policy,” he said. “We cannot put the trash cans back in. The law won’t let us.”

One employee in the post office said if someone other than the mail recipient throws away discarded mail that is OK, but the post office cannot do it.

Mail contains a lot of information on the outside of envelopes that can be damaging if it gets in the wrong hands, Kersch explained.

He said identity theft is increasingly becoming a bigger problem because of new technology.

“I realize when there is a change, people generally don’t like it,” Kersch said. “But we are doing this for their own good.”

Mirror writer Bryan Martin can be reached via e-mail at bmartin@kodiakdailymirror.com.