Opportunity Makes the Thief
They say opportunities can entice someone to become a thief. For postal employees, such opportunities often come from those outside the Postal Service. They bait employees with promises of quick, easy cash, assuring them it’s all minimal risk. But two separate investigations in New York State illustrate how much postal employees stand to lose if they conspire to steal from the U.S. Mail.
One such mail theft scheme that was corrupt to its core involved U.S. Treasury checks: Someone outside the Postal Service filed fraudulent claims for Economic Impact Payments to the U.S. Treasury during the COVID-19 pandemic. That person then roped in a city carrier, who would intercept the checks in the mailstream and turn them over to him in exchange for payment.
The carrier was brazen — our special agents observed him at the post office hand-picking dozens of envelopes from the Treasury at a time, piling them together, and then taking out his calculator to add up the spoils (each stimulus check was worth $1,400). But the clock was about to run out on the operation.
In November 2022, our special agents arrested the mail carrier and postal management suspended him on the spot. He was removed from the Postal Service the following January. The carrier admitted to stealing the Treasury checks and providing them to the suspect in question. In October 2023, he was sentenced to time served plus one year of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay more than $113,000 in restitution.
Another scheme involved a mail clerk who was also recruited by an external actor to steal checks. The clerk stole a large volume of business checks from a local post office and later a mail processing and distribution center or P&DC (massive sorting facilities that send mail and packages to local delivery facilities). The clerk would then provide the checks to his co-conspirator, who along with others would fraudulently alter them to collect payment. It turns out some of the checks stolen were also issued by the U.S. Treasury.
Our partner agencies arrested the external suspect, recovering thousands of business checks, computer equipment, and weapons while executing a search warrant at his home. The suspect eventually admitted to also buying checks from the dark web and stealing mail out of USPS mailboxes and vehicles. He is now serving time in prison for numerous violations, among them fraud.
What Is “The Sanctity of the U.S. Mail”?
When people sign on to the Postal Service, they take the oath every federal employee does at the start of a U.S. government career. USPS also requires its employees to adhere to very high ethical standards, foremost preserving “the sanctity of the mail.” The Postal Service considers the handling of mail a sacred trust — a critical part of the bargain of trust between sender and service. That’s also why more than 200 federal laws protect the sanctity of the mail.
As for the clerk, he was terminated from the Postal Service in March 2022 and pled guilty to the charges last August. In December 2023, he was sentenced to three years’ probation and was ordered to pay more than $153,000 in restitution.
Mail theft diminishes the public’s trust in the Postal Service and causes grave losses for check issuers, be it postal customers, businesses, banking institutions, or the U.S. government. It is a dangerous game, where postal employees are played as pawns for a measly profit to violate the sanctity of the U.S. Mail. If you suspect or know of mail theft involving Postal Service employees or contractors, please report it to our Hotline.