Postal clerk opened greeting cards to check for money then taped them shut, feds say
Two days before a Missouri postal worker was confronted about stealing gift cards placed in the mail as part of a sting, authorities said she rifled through 17 greeting cards.
The sales and service distribution clerk said she stole those outgoing cards and took them home, according to federal authorities. But those 17 cards didn’t have money or gift cards, she said, so she taped them shut and placed them back in the mail.
Other times, the woman did steal gift cards and cash from mail in the Poplar Bluff area, according to her signed plea agreement. Authorities said she also embezzled about $150 from the post office.
Now, the 29-year-old has been sentenced to probation and ordered to pay restitution after pleading guilty to two counts of theft of mail, according to a May 16 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri.
Her defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on May 17.
People in the Poplar Bluff area started complaining about missing mail contents in April 2022, authorities said, sparking an investigation by the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General.
The clerk was identified as a “possible suspect” on Aug. 18, 2022, according to the release.
Two days later, a federal agent put a blue envelope in the mail that the clerk would come in contact with, authorities said. The envelope contained a greeting card and two Walmart gift cards worth $25 each.
Those gift cards were redeemed on Aug. 23, 2022, according to the plea agreement. Authorities said the clerk used the two gift cards, along with one other, to buy two Huffy bicycles via an online pick-up order.
About a month later, authorities said an agent placed another blue greeting card — with an empty Kohl’s gift card — into the mail at the Broseley, Missouri, Post Office, where the clerk was working.
She opened the test mail piece, prosecutors said, and was questioned.
Investigators found that she stole mail from at least 45 customers, according to the plea agreement.
Poplar Bluff is in the southeast corner of Missouri.
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