What would you do if someone asked you to steal something from the mail for a quick buck?
Most Postal Service employees wouldn’t dream of it. But once in a while, someone is tempted. Then, they find out the hard way that colluding wasn’t worth the risk to their finances or their freedom.
We have several mail theft cases that involved postal employees colluding with external subjects on our Office of Investigations Case Highlights page. In one case a postal employee at a New York processing plant pulled checks from the mail for a criminal organization. The group then used fake IDs to open bank accounts in the names of the rightful recipients, deposited the checks, and withdrew the funds. Working with federal law enforcement partners, OIG special agents found the employee and arrested him in 2022 for conspiracy to commit bank fraud. His employment was terminated, and in January, he was sentenced to time served.
In a similar case, we received a congressional request to look into a constituent’s complaints about missing mail. Our special agents discovered an employee in New Jersey was stealing credit cards, business checks, and U.S. Treasury checks from delivery routes and providing some of them to other individuals for a fee. The employee was arrested, lost his job, and after pleading guilty, received a six-month sentence. He also had to pay more than $100,000 in restitution to the Treasury and credit card companies. (Read more about both cases.)
Our investigators uncovered another conspiracy after a complaint to our Hotline. A postal customer received an alert about a $680 purchase he didn’t make on a credit card that never arrived. Local police had similar complaints of stolen credit cards, debit cards, and checks of all kinds — personal, business, and U.S. Treasury. Working together, our special agents zeroed in on a mail carrier who served multiple routes, while local law enforcement identified an outside individual linked to the carrier. Searches of their homes found stolen checks and cards as well as drugs and firearms. The carrier confessed to stealing mail, selling it online, and also dealing drugs. He pleaded guilty, received a suspended sentence of 28 years, and lost his job. (Read more.)
OIG auditors are also working to help the Postal Service improve its ability to detect and prevent mail theft. Our recent audit Mitigating Internal Mail Theft recommended fixes for policies, processes, and equipment to make it even more difficult to get away with mail theft.
If you’re approached to steal mail or suspect a postal employee or contractor of mail theft, contact the OIG Hotline.
