Sticky-Fingered Mail Carriers Answer To Letter Of Law

Thousands of pieces of mail destined for homes across the Tampa Bay area have not been delivered.

The letters, cards and magazines have instead been hidden in storage units, stuffed into garbage bags and dumped in rural areas of Hillsborough County. Many were emptied of gift cards, cash, checks and credit cards.

The people responsible for the thefts have been letter carriers employed by the U.S. Postal Service, entrusted to handle and deliver the mail. Some of them were motivated by greed, taking gift cards, checks and cash and using them to buy personal items, including power tools and beer.

One letter carrier told investigators she just didn't have the time to deliver all her mail, so she stashed it in a storage unit. Another was captured on a store surveillance video using a stolen gift card while wearing his postal uniform.

In the past few months, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa has prosecuted four letter carriers, all of whom have either pleaded guilty or signed documents agreeing to plead guilty. One was sentenced to a year and a day behind bars. The four all worked in different post offices and had no apparent connection to one another.

Donna McMahan of Brooksville sent her mother in St. Petersburg a card for her 84th birthday last Sept. 30. Inside the envelope she tucked a $50 Wal-Mart gift card.

When the card didn't arrive, McMahan said she called Wal-Mart to see whether the gift card had been cashed. Initially, she was told there was no way to track that. But with the help of one of her mother's friends, she found a savvier Wal-Mart manager in St. Petersburg, who immediately tracked the card to see it had been used less than 24 hours after McMahan mailed it.

"I'm still so mad about it, I could spit nails," McMahan said. "You trust your mail and having someone do something like that to an elderly person is just wrong. ... It was just her birthday and I sent her another card, but I wouldn't send her another certificate. So everybody loses out, my mother loses out. Wal-Mart loses out."

"When you put something in the mail, you expect it to be delivered, you don't expect this from the U.S. Postal Service," said U.S. Attorney Robert O'Neill. "This is important. We have to ensure the integrity of the postal system. We all rely on it."

"It is unusual," said Sam Montalvo, spokesman for the Postal Service's Office of Inspector General. "It's very uncommon. For the most part, postal employees are honest, hard working. Every now and then, you get bad a egg."

Montalvo said these cases are rare, and it's especially unusual to have four so close in time and geography to one another. He didn't provide statistics. Montalvo's office covers five states, including Florida. Once in a while, he said, he'll hear of a case in Tennessee or maybe one in Jacksonville. It's "strange," he said, to hear of four cases in one area.

"These are the bad eggs," Montalvo said. "They'll get bold, and we'll catch them. I guess they're not as smart as they think."

Montalvo said when investigators recover stolen mail, it is immediately re-delivered. If it is damaged or open, the intended recipient receives a letter from the post office. People who feel they are missing mail should call their local postmaster, he said.

According to court documents, here are the recent local cases:

• James Albert Harrigan, 53, of Seffner, a 30-year employee of the Tampa post office assigned to the Tampa Processing and Distribution Center at 5201 W. Spruce St., took 3,525 pieces of mail home in garbage bags at night between November 2006 and January 2007. He was captured on video surveillance using stolen gift cards to make purchases at Wal-Mart stores and a Target store. Investigators recovered 2,800 pieces of the stolen mail.

He was sentenced in May to a year and a day behind bars and ordered to pay $7,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to theft of mail, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

• Elminio Dion Thomas, 42, of Dover, worked 13 years at the Open Air Station, 76 Fourth St. N. in St. Petersburg. He opened 10 pieces of mail containing gift cards worth a total of $300 to $500 from September 2007 to January. For example, he took a Wal-Mart gift card that had been mailed in Brooksville to St. Petersburg and used it to make purchases at the Wal-Mart at 1505 N. Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa, and at a Sam's Club in Brandon.

Sam's Club surveillance video showed him using the card while wearing his postal uniform. He pleaded guilty Sept. 10 to a charge of opening mail without authority, which carries a maximum of a year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000.

• Amanda Sue Omerzo, 20, of Lake Alfred, worked as a rural carrier associate assigned to Florence Villa Station in Winter Haven. In December 2007, she opened a holiday greeting card that had been mailed from Wisconsin to Winter Haven. After that, she hid 614 pieces of mail in a storage unit in Lake Alfred. The stashed mail included 81 pieces of first-class mail; seven pieces of nonprofit mail and 526 pieces of pre-sorted, standard mail, none directed to her.

She told investigators she intended to deliver the mail, but once she wasn't feeling well, and another time, she had taken too much time and had to go take care of her baby. Her signed plea agreement was filed with the court Tuesday. She agreed to plead guilty to one count of opening mail without authority.

• Alfonso Higareda, 30, of Apollo Beach worked eight years as a city carrier assigned to the Sun City Center post office. He opened four pieces of mail, including a Publix supermarket gift card and a Home Depot credit card. He stole a Home Depot credit card and used it to make $1,155 in purchases. He was captured on surveillance video using the card. He also stole a $50 Publix gift card and was captured on store video using it.

Higareda told investigators he used the gift cards to purchase ladders, drills, saws, a workbench, a vacuum and beer. The total loss amount was estimated at about $1,350. He pleaded guilty Tuesday to opening mail without authority.

Then there's R.V. Hood, who was not a letter carrier, but broke into the post office in Eagle Lake twice, on Dec. 30 and Jan. 29. On Dec. 10, he and two accomplices stole a mail collection box in front of the post office and took all the mail, altering, forging and cashing checks contained in the stolen mail. He was sentenced last week to two years in prison, followed by three years probation, after pleading guilty to burglary of a post office.

GOT A PROBLEM?

People who want to report missing mail or suspect mail has been stolen can contact the U.S. Postal Service online or call 1-800-275-8777 and select "O" or "operator."