“People came in yesterday to put things up and there was nothing there,” Bob Welch, postmaster, said on Friday of the disappointment with which the public greeted the missing four-foot-by-six-foot bulletin board that sat in the post office entryway.
The board was the Ninilchik’s watering hole, drawing a crowd of faithful users. It displayed notices of upcoming meetings and births of new community members, announced fund-raisers for individuals in need and alerted residents of this small Kenai Peninsula community when their neighbors passed away.
Want to find a home for your kittens? Put a notice on the post office bulletin board. Want to rent a cabin? Post a flier. Lose something important? Tack up a poster.
Summertime visitors even stopped to photograph the colorful display.
But not anymore.
“We’ve reported it to both the USPS Inspection Service and the Alaska State Troopers,” Welch said.
According to Trooper David Sherbahn, the robbery happened between 9 p.m. April 5 and 6 a.m. April 6. In addition to the bulletin board, a newspaper box in front of the post office was broken into. Newspapers and paper from the bulletin board were scattered across the post office parking lot.
“It is unknown whether any money was missing,” Sherbahn said of money in the newspaper box.
Sherbahn said the bulletin board is valued at $100, but, because the bulletin board is federal property, the offense may carry a surprisingly larger fine for the individual or individuals responsible for the loss.
“For any crime against federal property like that, there’s a $10,000 fine,” Welch said. “If (troopers) find them, they will be in trouble.”
That information is posted in a bulletin board inside the post office that is covered with glass and secured with lock and key.
“So it’s not like they didn’t know about it,” Welch said.
Needing a place to post messages, Ninilchik residents have started taping notices of Easter events on the windows of the post office entryway.
“I guess I’ll have to get another bulletin board,” Welch said.
McKibben Jackinsky can be contacted at mckibben.jackinsky@homernews.com.
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