You may have noticed more news stories about mail theft happening around the country — unfortunate but true: even the U.S. Treasury recently warned about a nationwide surge in mail theft-related check fraud schemes targeting the U.S. Mail. Inside the Postal Service, the incidence of mail theft by employees pales by comparison, but it happens. Two recently closed investigations in New York and New Jersey illustrate the point.

In 2017, U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) investigated unknown individuals negotiating stolen U.S. Treasury checks. The scheme ran like this: The group got hold of stolen checks and created fake IDs using the victim’s names to open bank accounts. They would deposit the stolen Treasury checks and then make cash withdrawals and purchases. USPIS followed the trail and arrested three of those individuals in 2019 and 2020.

In 2021, USPIS referred the case to our Office of Investigations. In collaboration with USPIS and the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, our special agents identified a postal employee at a New York processing and distribution center as a possible suspect. During the investigation, they found the employee had been pulling checks from the mailstream and supplying them to his co-conspirators.

Our agents arrested the employee in September 2022, charging him with conspiracy to commit bank fraud. The following April, the employee pleaded guilty, after which the Postal Service terminated his employment. This January, he was sentenced to time served plus one year of supervised release.

A second case in nearby New Jersey had an even harsher outcome. It started when we received a congressional request to look into complaints from a constituent of missing mail. It turned out there wasn’t just one victim — our agents pieced together a pattern of missing credit cards, business checks, and Treasury checks from various routes served by a local post office. It didn’t take long for our agents to identify the likely suspect there.

In December 2021, our agents arrested an employee for mail theft and two months later, the Postal Service terminated his employment. In April this year, the employee plead guilty and was later sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, six months of home detention, and three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay more than $100,000 in restitution to the U.S. Treasury and credit card companies.

Mail theft not only harms the victims, it also erodes the public’s trust in the Postal Service. If you suspect or know of mail theft involving Postal Service employees or contractors, please report it to our Hotline.

For further reading:

Department of Justice (via uspsoig.gov), Essex County Postal Employee Admits Mail Theft.