Middlebury postal worker charged with stealing mail Save Email Print
Posted: 6:43 PM Jun 4, 2008
 Last Updated: 6:43 PM Jun 4, 2008
 Reporter: Sarah Platt
Email Address: sarah.platt@wndu.com
31 comments
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Mail theft--it's a crime we sometimes hear about in larger cities, and it appears small towns are no exception. A Middlebury postal worker is charged with stealing mail, after 21,000 pieces of undelivered mail were found in her home.

As you can imagine, this incident has customers infuriated. Officials say the suspect letter carrier was arrested on May 19th and resigned on Tuesday. Officials with the Postal Inspector's Office say she's facing federal charges for stealing mail. It appears the crime went on for at least a year.

Residents in Middlebury reacted to this breach of trust. “We started noticing some important documents were missing. My husband's gun license didn't come and didn't come... and I had a contract that never showed up and I called and they said ‘we mailed it,’” explains Candace Kaminsky.

Kaminsky wasn't alone. Others complained and Middlebury's postal officials looked into it. What they found shocked them. 21,000 letters and packages, inside the letter carrier’s home. “It seemed to be a lot of everything. Don't understand the logic behind it, very sad,” says Jan Ostrom, Middlebury’s Officer in Charge.

To help sort through the mess, the post office brought in extra employees to re-deliver the thousands of pieces of mail. They say there's so much it's comparable to a holiday season. “It's like Christmas time at the post office. We've been known to work on Sundays, we do whatever it takes,” says Elizabeth Spencer, a postal worker called in to help out.

The post office started delivering the old mail this week. They’re hoping to get done by the end of the week.

While some customers know they're missing mail, others aren't so sure.

Middlebury residents are now preparing themselves, as they might have quite a load on their hands next time they check the mailbox. “If they couldn't have handled the mail, they should have said this is too much, I need some help,” adds Kaminsky.

The Middlebury Post Office is asking their customers for patience as they work to get this problem resolved. The worker charged faces up to five years in prison and/or $250,000 in fines.

It’s unclear if any of the mail was taken out of the envelopes or packages. However, it appears most of it was left in the packaging, as the post office was able to re-deliver it.

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Posted by: mari Location: calif on Aug 4, 2008 at 06:29 PM
Hey this happens all over! For nearly 8 years of buying small items for fun on Ebay that interest me, all of a sudden I didnt receive several.. yet the sender and i had proof they touched down at the local post office.. After hours on the phone, emails, and finally a claim to the Postal Inspector, what do ya know??? I get all the pkgs i was missing, STILL in original pkg, no note no reason? Were they in a black hole? Internal mail fraud? Do postal workers play White Elephant with the things we are waiting for that we worked hard for???? What if i had not complained? Would my pkgs still be missing????????
Posted by: anonymous Location: USA on Jun 6, 2008 at 05:10 PM
What is coming down the line is the FSS or flat sequence sorter. All the magazines will soon be machine run just like the letters. This will be eliminating carrier jobs- when a somebody retires that route will be left vacant. When this is up and running most carriers will be on the street delivering for 7 hours at least instead of the 5 and a half to 6 now. Because of the size and cost of these machines I believe the carriers will be starting at 9 am to 9:30 instead of the 7 to 7:30 today. The heavier load and longer street times will increase injuries suffered in the carrier craft. Injuries have risen greatly since the machine mail has arrived with many many cases of carpal tunnel arising due to the way we have been made to carry the mail. I personally suffer from periods of numbness in my arms and hands and have notice some knee and ankle joint pain due to the job. The video for the flat sorter was on youtube, search flat sorter. I hope this may have ansered some questions
Posted by: ananoymous Location: USA on Jun 6, 2008 at 05:02 PM
If the envelope it has hitched a ride on is larger than the missorted letter your carrier may never even see it. You never had these problems before because your carrier handled every piece he delivered, now he may not see that machined mail until he gets to that address. We also used to get vacation hold mail and people who have moved mail pulled from the machined mail, but that was a task left to the bosses and they seemed to have stopped doing that. The moved mail was only removed from the mail flow for 30 days even though the change of address is good for 1 year. This was done so that the target percentage of mail being machined could reach the acceptable number that those running the PO wanted to see- even though it degrades the service you the customer receives. The mail carrier has become a juggler, carrying a dedicated bundle of machined letter mail in your hand, the mixed bundle of letters and magazines that you carry in your arm, and the flyers in your satchel. more....
Posted by: anonymous Location: USA on Jun 6, 2008 at 04:55 PM
To anon in Goshen the reason you are getting mail from other locations- again this isn't excusing it but explaingin it for you. Over the last 15 years the USPS has phased in DPS mail which stands for Delivery Point Sequence mail. In other words this is mail sorte by a machine that the carrier dosen't look at until we get to it on the street. 75 to 90% of all letter mail is processed this way. There are bar codes at the bottom of the letters and that determines how the mail is sorted. It also explains how mail from nowhere near your address ends up in your mailbox. If the barcode is keyed in wrong you get that mail or whomever else happens to have that wrongly keyed in address. The machines have trouble with green and red envelopes and red pen addressing on a clolored envelope as well. Man times these letters are jammed into the mailtrays and the mail that does not belong to you gets caught underneath the flap of the envelope directly in front of it. continued in next post.....
Posted by: anon Location: Goshen on Jun 6, 2008 at 11:57 AM
I live somewhere really close to what must be the Middlebury and Goshen dividing point. I say that because I live in the Middlebury school district and have a Middlebury phone number but this place has a Goshen mailing address. I've been here for about 14 years and have had dozens of times where I get other people's mail and they get ours. I have no idea if I have ever missed something I was supposed to get but the neighbors have always been nice enough to deliver it when the same mistakes are made. All of the mailboxes are labeled so that's not the problem. Heck - we even get mail from halfway across town sometimes. I've complained, the neighbors have complained and it still happens. The mistakes have seemed to taper off quite a bit but they still happen too often. Maybe I'm wrong but I don't think it should be that hard matching numbers on paper to numbers on a mailbox.
Posted by: Primly Location: Goatville on Jun 6, 2008 at 11:39 AM
I take pre-emptive steps to ENSURE my mail delivery is working. Simply send yourself a small postcard every week and make sure it arrives. If you're short of money, and hey with todays gas prices, who isn't... you can also take your junkmail, put a little mark on it and send it to yourself again. I keep a little journal of my sent mail and I tick each item off when it arrives. If I'm missing any, I don't screw around, I go straight to the Chief of Post for Indiana and give him a piece of my mind. Every time!
Posted by: Willie Location: Niles on Jun 6, 2008 at 11:37 AM
Good points, USA! Unfortunately, this is the sort of mismanagement that is likely to occur in a quasi-governmental bureaucracy that can just raise rates if needed instead of improving management tactics.
Posted by: Anonymous on Jun 6, 2008 at 08:51 AM
gives a whole new meaning to going postal!!
Posted by: Anonymous Location: Bristol on Jun 6, 2008 at 08:50 AM
I had to call the Goshen post office some years ago when I had a letter for a PO Box returned marked "No Mail Receptacle".
Posted by: sally Location: upper northern on Jun 5, 2008 at 09:43 PM
well... let's pick on the whole post office because of this incident. Do you know how many letters they have to deal with... do you know how many hand written addresses are unreadable and how people are constantly leaving off the apt # or forgetting to put the street number at all? Yes...they make mistakes and a few of them have a screw loose like this woman. Who knows maybe her bosses were on her ass for being so slow and she felt this was the only way to speed things up. I don't know and you don't know but for the most part...the mail gets to where it needs to go for 42 cents! I have seen stamps and stickers for a dollar and they don't do anything except for decorate something. Be nice... your mail carrier has to put up with a lot including a rule that we are not supposed to back up. They do that for safety...not for laziness. Have you noticed any windows in the back of their truck??? No! be nice to each other. give them a glass of water when it's hot! love your neighbor!!!
Posted by: anonymous Location: USA on Jun 5, 2008 at 08:11 PM
part 2: This dosen't excuse these misdeliveries. There are a majority of carriers who wished the system was different, but the threats and the harrasment from postal management has made many carriers more aware of the time than the quality of the delivery, thats what your performance is being based on. There is discipline if you are late 5 minutes. I have seen letters of warning given to carriers for carrying a package in their hands and not in the bag-even though the bag was too full to place the parcel inside. The PO is losing money again and they will try and put it on the backs of the carriers by expanding the routes again. Believe me, we are just as frustrated as you all are. Until the bonus pay structure of management changes, based on hours used etc. this will not be getting better anytime soon. This letter carrier sympathizes with all of you. Something like this should never happen
Posted by: anonymous Location: USA on Jun 5, 2008 at 08:04 PM
Lots of good comments here. As a letter carrier I can tell you we are as frustrated as many of you here. The box being moved comes from management and not the carrier- we are told not to turn around. They would rather us drive around the block than back up- not saying it isn't done, but if you are seen you can be given a letter of warning or suspended. As far as the misdeliveries go, the PO is running shorthanded and making carriers leave gom to the street a half hour to an hour earlier everyday and absorb that time,pivot, on an unfamilliar route in their 8 hour day. We are forced to curtail bulk mail and other non dated mail to make up the time they are short staffing. Much ofd that mail is being put together, "cased up" by carriers routes they do not know, being delivered by carriers unfamilliar with the area. This also adds another 50- 175 deliveries per day on top off the 450 to 750/800 a city carrier may already have on their own route.
Posted by: Sheila Location: Goshen on Jun 5, 2008 at 03:11 PM
What is the reason you are not publishing this person's name? Why is it that you smear one's name all over the paper and the next one you won't say who it is? One is not one bit better than the other one and an arrest is an arrest.
Posted by: Alan Location: Elkhart on Jun 5, 2008 at 02:56 PM
Is it possible this mail carrier has been suffering some sort of mental health issue? I cant imagine a postal carrier just doing something like this for the heck of it.
Posted by: Where's the pride in doing the job right? on Jun 5, 2008 at 01:03 PM
Neither rain, nor snow, or dark of night........what happened to professionalism? The mail carriers get paid to DELIVER THE MAIL! Most carriers are good people,like my neighbor growing up, who do their jobs. She needs to be prosecuted under federal law. Period.
Posted by: M Location: Middlebury on Jun 5, 2008 at 01:02 PM
I almost called the USPS a couple of months ago after having several problems with customers saying they mailed us checks & I hadn't gotten them and also Vendors saying they mailed me invoices but i hadn't gotten them either...until now, 4-16months later!! This has created a lot of extra work for no good reason. Makes me mad that someone would just take our mail.
Posted by: Ginny Location: Middlebury on Jun 5, 2008 at 12:48 PM
It's nice to finally get my old mail back but now I'm not getting my current mail. I guess they can't return the stolen mail and continue our regular mail service at the same time. For the last 2 days I've been getting mail that I should have gotten in April. It's nice to finally get my mail order prescriptions!!!! Too bad it's 2 months too late. Wonder when I'll finally get the birthday cards that my family says I should have gotten today?!?! Will this ever end?? To me, it seems like 5 years isn't much of a punishment for stealing around 21,000 pieces of mail (including people's prescription medication). It's been a real pain to straighten everything out. I've had to reorder items that got stolen, didn't receive information about other things until after they had happened, etc. It's sad that we can't even trust the person delivering your mail anymore!
Posted by: Lena Location: Elkhart on Jun 5, 2008 at 11:20 AM
I am missing so much mail from a certain week in February---of course, a lot of it birthday cards for my 12 year old son. I blamed it on careless or lazy mailman. There is a different one in my neighborhood every day, no wonder it gets so screwed up. If their routes were a little more routine for them, maybe they would care more about what they were doing. Everyone is in such a hurry these days that carelessness is how they get the job done. Pretty sad. Maybe someday my son will get all the cards that people sent to him.
Posted by: frosty Location: south bend on Jun 5, 2008 at 10:56 AM
Bring back the pony express!!
Posted by: Willie Location: Niles on Jun 5, 2008 at 10:44 AM
Here's the thing: Generally the USPS does a very good job of getting mail delivered, on time, for a very reasonable price. They do, in my experience however, lack a good system for monitoring the accuracy of their mail carriers. My neighbors and I have gotten each others' mail at least three times in the past several months, and we will usually just deliver it ourselves rather than spending our time calling to complain. Maybe if the USPS did satisfaction surveys they could cut down on their mistakes...?
Posted by: L on Jun 5, 2008 at 10:12 AM
I get neighbours mail and they get mine. Some of these people are sloppy and some of our most important business arrives in the mailbox. We have a PO Box for work and the same thing happens. I hope this person gets alot of jailtime, this is ridiculous!
Posted by: Charles on Jun 5, 2008 at 09:12 AM
To Sandy Try turning the police report over to the US Postal Service Inspector's Office in Indiana. The one for Michigan is in Grand Rapids. I am very sure they will file federal charges even if your local police department did not know enough to call the postal inspectors for federal charges. Hope this works for you
Posted by: Willie Location: NIles on Jun 5, 2008 at 09:07 AM
It took them a year to figure this out?
Posted by: Laurie Location: Goshen on Jun 5, 2008 at 08:49 AM
YES, the same thing is happening in Goshen! Who do we complain too? I've called and called and called the Goshen Post Office and get nowhere!! PLUS our mail person can't read! We get the neighbor's mail all the time !!! So if I'm getting the neighbor's mail, who is getting mine?! The Post office is a JOKE!
Posted by: Michael Doiron Location: Goshen, IN on Jun 5, 2008 at 12:00 AM
I think the same thing is happening in Goshen! We run a business from our home and sometimes go 3 days and not receive any mail at all-not even the weekly ads. Twice we had friends hand deliver mail they sent to us because it was returned to them as "undeliverable". We took the first letter to the post office and complained and they said they would investagate and call us-they never called. The second letter was taken in,we complained and we were told that it was not enough to have our number on our mail box but we also had to put our name on the box! We complied even though most boxes only have a number on them and we still go days without any mail. When we ask to speak with the postmaster we are told "he is not in today". Since the Goshen post office does not seem to be concerned about this who can we complain to? How did the people in Middlebury get things to go from a complaint to an investigation? Thanks
Posted by: Joe Location: Goshen on Jun 4, 2008 at 10:42 PM
Maybe she thought the new forever stamps meant she had forever to deliver the mail?
Posted by: Anonymous on Jun 4, 2008 at 09:23 PM
i wonder if these people have to worry about identity theft.
Posted by: eric Location: south bend on Jun 4, 2008 at 09:21 PM
Reminds me of Newman on Seinfeld.
Posted by: Jared Location: Goshen on Jun 4, 2008 at 08:28 PM
I hope they throw the book at this individual. I recently had a rewards certificate for $50 before it could ever hit my PO box. Obviously clipped by a postal worker. Thank you for catching one. The iceburg is no doubt huge.
Posted by: Alex Location: Middlebury on Jun 4, 2008 at 07:49 PM
I'm glad they got her. We lost tons of mails/packages! We had to cancel several accounts because of missing checks!
Posted by: Sandy Location: AZ on Jun 4, 2008 at 07:49 PM
I had a similar incident when I lived in Bourbon, IN except that it was an individual that was stealing the mail out of my mailbox. The individual stole several child support checks and cashed them. I filed a report with the Bourbon police department but they ended up not prosecuting the man so he got off scot free with over $1000 of my child support money. I wish the Bourbon police department was as consciousentious as the Middlebury post office. Then maybe I could have recovered my money.
Posted by: KR Location: Elkhart on Jun 4, 2008 at 07:02 PM
Ha! She must have watched Newman on Seinfeld for her inspiration.
Posted by: Pat Location: Middleofnowherebury on Jun 4, 2008 at 06:21 PM
Big surprise there...this coming from a post office who made me move my mailbox to a neighbor's yard because the carrier wouldn't turn around on a dead end street. Laziness on top of laziness. Who could ask for anything more from a governmental office who likes to pretend they are a private corporation?
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