Staff photo / Ed Runyan A U.S. Postal Service delivery vehicle is seen traveling on Front Street in downtown Youngstown recently.

YOUNGSTOWN — A U.S. Postal Service mail carrier was robbed of his arrow key at 5:10 p.m. Wednesday on Hilton Avenue on the South Side — his final delivery of the day, he told police.

The suspect repeatedly told the carrier, “Don’t die over a key, bro,” the carrier told police, according to a Youngstown police report. The carrier was not injured. The robbery follows similar robberies in 2023 in Youngstown and a mail carrier being killed while delivering mail March 2 in Warren.

U.S. Postal Service arrow keys open boxes containing mail. They are called arrow keys because they fit into locks made by the Arrow Lock Manufacturing Co. of Connecticut.

Arrow key thefts have increased significantly in recent years across the United States. This is at least the third theft of an arrow key from a Youngstown mail carrier since January 2023.

The report states that the carrier was approached by an unknown male while completing his route Wednesday. The carrier said the male was a light-skinned black male in his mid-30s about 6 feet tall wearing sunglasses, a black hat and a black COVID-19 mask. He was wearing a black jacket and black undershirt with black jeans with tan-colored lining.

According to the report, the carrier said the male approached and said “Don’t die for a key, bro.” At first, the carrier thought the male was joking, but the male said, “Don’t play with me” and “Don’t die for a key, bro.” The carrier said he put his arms in the air and said he only had the keys to his delivery van.

The male again said “Don’t die over a key, bro,” according to the report. The male then lifted up his jacket, revealing a handgun in his waistband. The male then asked if the key was in the van, and the mail carrier said it was. The male instructed the carrier to walk back to the delivery vehicle to retrieve the key for him, according to the police report.

They walked to the van, which was parked at the corner of Hilton Avenue and Rush Boulevard, and the mail carrier unlocked the van, and the male told the carrier “If you try anything, you’re dead.”

The carrier then tossed the key, “which unlocks street mailboxes, and the male fled on foot west bound on Hilton Avenue,” the report states.

The two previous arrow key thefts happened in similar fashion with one taking place on Dec. 11 on Kensington Avenue on the North Side. The second one took place at the beginning of 2023 in the 400 block of North Osborn Avenue on Youngstown’s West Side.

KILLING

Warren-area mail carrier Jont’e J. Davis, 33, was shot to death in his mail vehicle March 2. Davis had been delivering mail along Olive Street NE in Warren when he was found shot at 1:44 p.m. after officers responded to a shots-fired call, according to a police report. Police say Davis was fired upon by someone in another vehicle.

Davis later died at Trumbull Regional Medical Center. A witness said a dark gray, four-door pickup truck pulled alongside Davis’ vehicle as a backseat passenger fired four or five shots into Davis’ mail truck. Davis’ vehicle continued on Olive Street before stopping at Scott Street just north of downtown. Davis was still in the driver’s seat when the vehicle came to rest, a witness said.

The pickup truck authorities believe was involved was recovered from the driveway of a home at 429 Maryland Ave. NE a few hours later. Several individuals were questioned. Authorities said they believe the suspects and Davis knew one another.

The USPS is offering up to a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect(s).

Davis, a father of 10, lived in Warren, was a Warren G. Harding High School graduate and had worked at the U.S. Postal Service for one year as a letter carrier and had earlier worked as a tow-motor operator and food-service company driver, according to his obituary.

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