The Power of Law Enforcement Partnerships
A single complaint to our Hotline began the unravelling: A postal customer in Bethesda, MD, had been expecting a new credit card, only it never arrived. Instead, the card was used in an attempt to withdraw $700 in cash from an ATM in the area. Our special agents took it from there.
Expert investigators don’t take isolated complaints at face value — sometimes they’re symptoms of a more complex scheme. Our special agents found multiple USPS customers had also reported missing credit cards, checks, and other financial items in the same area over just four months. Through detailed analysis, suspicion fell on a Maryland mail carrier.
When our special agents called on their partners at the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and the Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD), they learned the agencies had been developing a case against a person of interest: That suspect had tried using a stolen credit card at a liquor store, but after the card was declined, he held the store clerk at gunpoint and threatened to kill him. Thankfully it didn’t escalate, and an arrest warrant was issued charging him with first degree assault. He also had a prior arrest for a crime of violence.
This investigation is a clear example of the value law enforcement partnerships bring to our communities. By partnering with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Montgomery County Police Department, the USPS OIG was able to help apprehend a postal employee and her co-conspirator who defrauded over 1,600 victims.
– Tammy Hull
Inspector General,
U.S. Postal Service
When law enforcement arrested the suspect a few days later in Washington, D.C., his girlfriend was on the scene. The suspect yelled at her, instructing her to clear out his storage unit. Investigators from USPIS and MCPD found the girlfriend had rented the unit, and during a subsequent search pursuant to a court-ordered search warrant found plenty of incriminating evidence: an embossing machine used to make fraudulent credit cards, blank credit cards, the suspect’s and others’ bank account information, and stolen personal identifying information for multiple suspected victims. Was the girlfriend an innocent bystander in all this?
It turns out she was the postal employee who’d been stealing mail from her post office. Investigators moved to execute another search warrant, this time at the carrier’s home where both suspects lived, and agents uncovered more evidence: over 1,700 stolen checks, almost 160 stolen credit cards and 50 fraudulent IDs, over 20 fraudulent money orders, and more than 230 pieces of rifled, stolen mail. The total damages were estimated at $2.8 million dollars and affected over 1,600 victims.
The carrier was arrested, indicted, and pleaded guilty. This February, she was sentenced to a year and four months in prison and ordered to pay over $140,000 in restitution to the victims. Her boyfriend is scheduled to be sentenced later this year.
If you suspect you’re a victim of mail theft by a Postal Service employee or contractor, please report it to our Hotline.