Unnerving. That’s a one-word summary to describe the current situation at the Poulsbo post office. It seems that in the past few months, a postal service employee has been rifling through mail and stealing checks, gift cards and cash.

The U.S. Postal Service’s Office of the Inspector General is conducting an investigation and spokesman James Masters said everyone who fell victim to this mail thief has been notified in one fashion or another. Grandmothers sending Valentine’s Day cards to friends and family and mothers sending birthday cards to their children can count themselves among the victims.

There’s no experience quite like going to the mailbox (not logging in to your email, mind you) and finding a birthday or Valentine’s Day card, or even an actual letter just for you. For children to receive birthday cards from grandmas and grandpas in far off places, the glee is amplified. And it’s equally heartbreaking if grandma or grandpa seemingly forgets because someone intercepted the card in the hope of making a few bucks.

And who couldn’t help but feel violated if a personal piece of mail intended for a loved one never arrived, and instead a total stranger took it?

While the very act of going through another’s mail is just plain illegal, for a postal service employee to do it is frightening. Identity theft is an everyday concern and one of the primary safety tips law enforcement offers is to keep an eye on your mail, especially pieces of mail that have checks in them. Adding to that, they say never mail cash. Use the post office boxes to send mail out, they say, as using your own mailbox makes your mail vulnerable. Now using the post office makes you vulnerable, also.