By Brian Schultz
Children in the United States will no longer be able to send “Dear Santa” letters to North Pole, Alaska after a scary incident in Maryland.
The U.S. Postal Service says an employee working in the facility that handles and sorts Santa letters recognized a volunteer to be a 55-year-old registered sex offender.
The concern now is that the names and addresses of children could end up getting in the wrong hands in the future.
Because of this, the Postal Service has ended its national Santa letter program, which started in 1954. People in the small Alaskan town are comparing the move to the Grinch who stole Christmas.
Any letters intercepted by the post office between now and Christmas will likely be shredded.
A Postal Service spokesperson told ABC News that if tighter restrictions are put in place to ensure the privacy of those writing letters to Santa, the program could begin again.
— With files from The Huffington Post
