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Investigations Reveal USPS Workers Stealing Mail After $100 Gift Card Goes Missing

Published

4 hours ago

Nov 28, 2024.

Jimmie Blackstone thought he was getting a $100 Visa gift card as a bonus when he signed up for a new internet provider.

However, when the card never arrived, he contacted the company and was told that it had been used at a local restaurant he had never visited.

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EKO HOT BLOG reports that although Blackstone is unsure who stole the gift card, he suspects it may have been an inside job at the U.S. Postal Service, as he noticed his mail arriving opened and at strange times.

“I absolutely think it was an internal job at the postal service,” he said. “After checking our mailbox twice a day, we were getting extra mail in the middle of the night, which I thought was very odd. After I filed a complaint, we stopped receiving mail at odd hours.”

13 Investigates has been seeking answers from the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) regarding concerns over internal mail theft. Despite repeated requests for interviews, USPS has been slow to respond. Our investigative team has now filed federal records requests to gather more details on this troubling issue.

The USPS Office of Inspector General (OIG) is tasked with investigating postal workers who break the law. According to data obtained by 13 Investigates, the USPS OIG made 602 arrests nationwide between January 2023 and June 2024 for mail theft. Most of these cases involved postal employees.

One particularly alarming case in June involved an Humble postal worker who admitted to delaying and discarding mail on multiple occasions, with mail found in personal trash cans at his home.

In another case, an investigation began in January 2022 following complaints from customers who reported missing greeting and gift cards.

A postal worker at the North Houston Processing and Distribution Center confessed to stealing cash and gift cards from the mail.

This theft likely affected over 1,000 customers. After admitting to her actions, the worker resigned and was later sentenced to three years of probation.

Frank Albergo, president of the Postal Police Officers Association, called the situation a “disaster.”

He noted that there are areas in the U.S. where the mail is “unsafe” due to theft, and some stolen mail is being sold on the dark web. Albergo criticized criminals infiltrating the postal service, tarnishing its once-pristine reputation.

In addition to these cases, our investigation uncovered a Tomball carrier who was found with nearly 4,000 pieces of misdirected mail in his personal vehicle and home in 2021.

A year earlier, a postal carrier in west Houston was caught with over 10,000 pieces of mail stored in his residence, including a trash container filled with mostly torn mail.

USPS Workers steal Mail

Blackstone, like many others, feels betrayed by the postal service. “I’ve had mail opened, where it looks like someone tried to peek inside. It’s mostly personal, handwritten stuff or documents from my bank,” he shared. “I’ve had pieces of mail completely opened.”

In response to Blackstone’s case, the USPS OIG stated, “We take mail theft very seriously.

Our work focuses on preventing and investigating internal theft by postal employees. We continue to investigate these cases, with a growing focus on criminal organizations colluding with employees to steal valuables like checks and credit cards.”