The Mail Carrier Hall Of Shame has a new inductee: A USPS worker in Florida has admitted to accepting bribes in exchange for delivering marijuana to a man named “Steve” along her route.
According to court documents [PDF], the first sign that something was amiss came in Oct. 2016, when the postal worker attempted to deliver a package with a Brooklyn return address that was postmarked from California to a Boca Raton community called The Oaks. The Oaks’ business office refused to accept the delivery because the addressee on the package didn’t live at the listed address.
When the mail carrier returned to the post office, she was questioned by federal agents, and told them that she had met a man known only as “Steve” who had given her addresses on her route and $50 for the packages she delivered to those addresses.
She said Steve would call her the morning the packages were expected, and would arrange to meet her near her route — sometimes at a grocery store or a veterinary office — and pay her for them.
The mail carrier told officials that although she was never given tracking numbers for the boxes, she recognized the packages because they were always addressed in the same handwriting, and were the same size. According to officials, she admitted to receiving at least one or two packages per month since June 2016, and was paid in cash for all of them besides the first two she delivered.
Although she claimed she was not told what was in the packages, she stated, “I figured it was some kind of drugs, but I don’t know what drugs.”
During questioning, she told authorities that she had been planning to deliver four packages to Steve for cash payment that day, but he’d called off their meeting that morning, saying that was something wasn’t quite right. Instead, he told her to take the packages to the addresses written on the boxes, which she did. She told officials she knew that the addresses on three of the packages were at residences where no one would be able to accept them.
All four of the boxes recovered by federal agents had return addresses from New York or Florida, but were postmarked from California. The total weight of marijuana found in the boxes was 9,186.6 grams, or about 20 pounds.
She was indicted [PDF] in April on charges of bribery and distribution of marijuana, and pleaded guilty on June 30. As part of a plea agreement [PDF] , the charge of distributing marijuana was dropped.
She’ll also be joining her brethren in The Mail Carrier Hall Of Shame:
February 2017: A North Carolina USPS worker admitted to failing to deliver thousands of pieces of mail to residents over at least 14 years.
October 2016: USPS investigates an employee accused of dumping hundreds of pieces of mail into a ditch — while a local filmed the whole thing.
August 2016: USPS worker accused of chucking mail in a pizzeria’s trash bin.
December 2015: Authorities said a Queens mailman dumped more than 1,000 pieces of mail in the trash because he was “overwhelmed” by his heavy holiday mail load.
July 2015: A Philadelphia postal worker was accused of delivering 22,000 pieces of mail straight to his garage.
July 2015: A New York City mailman was accused of stealing more than $1 million in tax refunds in a scheme spanning years.
June 2015: Three Manhattan postal workers were in hot water after being accused of stealing from the “Operation Santa” program like a bunch of Grinches.
December 2014: USPS worker was accused of swiping as many as 2,000 pieces of mail she was supposed to deliver, out of sheer boredom in Detroit.
December 2014: Eight postal workers were accused of stealing packages filled with marijuana in Long Island.
June 2014: A 20-year veteran of the postal system was accused of stealing 20,000 pieces of mail, collecting credit cards, and stacks of DVDs.
April 2014: A mailman in western Kentucky was sentenced to six months in prison for failing to deliver 44,900 pieces of mail, because he wanted to speed up his route.
August 2012: A mail carrier in suburban Chicago pled guilty to pilfering $275,000 in donations that were heading to a charity on his route, after being charged for stealing more than 29,400 pieces of mail in the effort.
May 2012: A 15-year-veteran of the USPS was accused of stealing prescription painkillers mailed to war vets in her area, and then selling those drugs to others on her route.
October 2011: Authorities said a Missouri mail carrier stole 120 Netflix DVDs, which would be a feat now considering the decline in the DVD business. He was also accused of swiping gift cards and other mail that never reached their destination.
January 2006: Colorado police charged two postal workers for plucking Netflix DVDs from the mail, for a total of around 503 discs.
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