April 21, 2010
POSTAL EMPLOYEE CHARGED IN THEFT OF MAIL
Allegedly Rifled Over 1200 Greeting Cards, Stealing Cash, Checks and Gift Cards
Baltimore, Maryland – A criminal complaint has been filed charging Postal Service employee Andrew C. Walsh, age 51, of Cockeysville, Maryland, with theft of mail. Walsh was arrested at home last night. At the time of his arrest, agents recovered approximately 450 stolen gift cards from his vehicle.
The criminal charge was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein and Special Agent in Charge Joanne Yarbrough, Office of Investigations, U.S. Postal Service – Office of Inspector General.
According to the affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, throughout January 2010, Postal employees at the Baltimore Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC), 900 East Fayette Street in Baltimore responsible for preparing mail for the first stages of mail processing, turned over numerous rifled greeting cards to the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) for investigation. These greeting cards had been torn open and in many cases their contents had been removed. From January through April 2010, rifled greeting cards were recovered almost daily, from approximately 4:30 p.m. through 10:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The recovered mail fluctuated between approximately 20 to 100 rifled greeting cards each night, totaling approximately 1200 victims to date.
Working with victims whose mail had been rifled and the contents stolen, investigators were able to identify gift cards which had been stolen and used. Investigators were able to connect some of those cards to Andrew Walsh, a Postal Service maintenance mechanic, who is currently an Acting Supervisor at the Baltimore Processing and Distribution Center, working the 3:00 p.m to 11:30 p.m. shift, Monday through Friday.
Walsh faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for theft of mail by a postal employee. Walsh had an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Baltimore today at 1:00 p.m.
A criminal complaint is not a finding of guilt. An individual charged by criminal complaint is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorney Tamera L. Fine, who is prosecuting the case.
I mail two gift card two separate envelope from Reston/Herndon to Vienna Virginia. both birthday card never made it to my niece and nephew.i report to target and was told the card have been redeem in Rockville Maryland on January 24th at 16:15 and the IHop card was redeem on Sunday February 1st at 10 am at the Silverspring IHop restaurant. I call the postal Inspector; they are overwhelm with so many case so i know they won’t be doing much.Target assets department got a video and have an image to give to the postal inspector and he call me that he pick it up but i still haven’t heard anything more.I WILL NEVER TRUST THE POSTAL SERVICE EVER AGAIN. I hope the person that stole my gift card choke on the pancake!!!
Several greeting cards ,sent and received have been slit open on the side or on the bottom. Over the past 4 or 5 years this has occurred mostly around the holidays. It’s still going on , at least in north PG.county.
You may want to report this here:
https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/contactUs/filecomplaint.aspx
It seems this is still happening. I have put three birthday cards in the mailbox at Fait and S. Linwood over the past few weeks that never made it to Montgomery and Frederick Counties.