Anna Zalwska, who works at Teresa’s Restaurant on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights, was trying to mail a couple of bills on Thursday at the USPS mailbox on the corner of Montague and Hicks streets.

But the familiar blue collection box was padlocked with a heavy red bar bearing the words, “This collection box has been locked. Do not attempt to open or use.”

“I’m disappointed,” she said, adding that now she didn’t know where to mail the letters. “They should improve that. It’s pretty convenient to mail the letters on the street.”

Zalwska was not the only confused postal patron in Brooklyn Heights on Wednesday and Thursday.

Postal officials had placed locks on every USPS mailbox in the neighborhood — that’s dozens — on Wednesday afternoon to prevent someone from setting off a bomb in one of them during the July 4 Independence Day fireworks display.

Locks were also put in place in Manhattan along the FDR Drive and First Avenue, and along the Queens waterfront.

A USPS spokesperson told the Brooklyn Eagle that the locks were installed “in the interest of safety and security.”

The collection boxes were scheduled to be unlocked on Thursday morning, but the handful of boxes this reporter observed were still locked at noon.

The reason the locks were installed in Brooklyn Heights and not, say, Greenpoint, where large crowds of people actually gathered to observe the fireworks this year, was a bit of a mystery to local residents.

“But now we all have an excuse for late payments,” Brooklyn Heights Association Executive Director Peter Bray noted optimistically. 

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US Mail Collection Boxes Padlocked On July 4

Brooklyn Heights

    Both sides of Montague Terrace – between Remsen Street and Montague  Street

    Both sides of Pierrepont Place – between Montague Street and Pierrepont Street

    Both sides of Remsen Street – between Montague Terrace and Court Street

    Both sides of Montague Street – between Montague Terrace and Court Street

    Both sides of Pierrepoint Street – between Pierrepont Place and Cadman Plaza West

    Both sides of Furman Street – between Old Fulton Street and Atlantic Avenue

    Both sides of Hicks Street – between Old Fulton Street and Atlantic Avenue

    Both sides of Henry Street – between Old Fulton Street and Atlantic Avenue

    Both sides of Clinton Street – between Cadman Plaza West and Atlantic Avenue

    Both sides of Columbia Heights – between Old Fulton Street and Pierrepont Street

    Both sides of Willow Street – between Hicks Street and Pierrepont Street

    Both sides of Poplar Street – between Hicks Street and Henry Street

    Both sides Cadman Plaza West – between Old Fulton Street and Tillary Street

    Both sides Old Fulton Street – Cadman Plaza West and Furman Street

Manhattan

    Both sides 1st Avenue – between  14th Street and 48th Street

    Both sides 20th Street – between  FDR Drive and 2nd Avenue

    Both sides 23rd Street – between  FDR Drive and 2nd Avenue

    Both sides 34th Street – between  FDR Drive and 2nd Avenue

    Both sides 42nd  Street – between  FDR Drive and 2nd Avenue

Queens

    46th Avenue to 54th Avenue, Vernon Blvd to Center Blvd

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