{"id":35112,"date":"2024-03-02T10:45:53","date_gmt":"2024-03-02T15:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=35112"},"modified":"2024-03-02T10:45:53","modified_gmt":"2024-03-02T15:45:53","slug":"former-richmond-postal-carrier-pleads-guilty-to-stealing-mail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2024\/03\/02\/former-richmond-postal-carrier-pleads-guilty-to-stealing-mail\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Richmond Postal Carrier Pleads Guilty to Stealing Mail"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text-align-justify\">RICHMOND, Va. \u2013 3\/1\/24 &#8211; A former postal carrier with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) in Richmond pleaded guilty yesterday to theft of mail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-justify\">According to court documents, Wendy Lawrence, 40, stole mail, removing gift cards, checks, and other items of value for her own use. Law enforcement recovered stolen mail from Lawrence\u2019s residence belonging to over 180 victims.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-justify\">After stealing checks from the mail, Lawrence used the bank account and routing information on those checks to initiate electronic payments, which she used for such expenses as her tax bill, pest control bill, and rent. On at least one occasion, to prolong and conceal the fraud scheme, Lawrence initiated a fraudulent address change with the USPS on behalf of a victim, rerouting the victim\u2019s mail to Lawrence\u2019s address. Law enforcement also recovered checks from Lawrence\u2019s residence that she forged for her own benefit, including checks in the name of at least 30 other individuals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-justify\">Lawrence faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-justify\">Jessica D. Aber, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Jeff Krafels, Special Agent in Charge of the Mid Atlantic Area Field Office for the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General; Ajay D. Lall, Acting Inspector in Charge for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service \u2013 Washington Division; and Bradford W. Nunnally, Sheriff for Powhatan County, made the announcement after U.S. District Judge M. Hannah Lauck accepted the plea. The Powhatan County Commonwealth\u2019s Attorney\u2019s Office provided substantial assistance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-align-justify\">Assistant U.S. Attorney Avi Panth is prosecuting the case.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/j495.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-33705\" src=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/j495-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/j495-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/j495-30x30.jpg 30w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RICHMOND, Va. \u2013 3\/1\/24 &#8211; A former postal carrier with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) in Richmond pleaded guilty yesterday to theft of mail. According to court documents, Wendy Lawrence, 40, stole mail, removing gift cards, checks, and other items of value for her own use. Law enforcement recovered stolen mail from Lawrence\u2019s residence belonging [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,72,89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-theftandfraud","category-postal-crime","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35112"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35113,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35112\/revisions\/35113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}