{"id":38474,"date":"2025-09-24T09:46:44","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T14:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=38474"},"modified":"2025-09-24T09:46:44","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T14:46:44","slug":"judge-sentences-man-to-more-than-seven-years-in-prison-for-robbing-usps-letter-carrier-in-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2025\/09\/24\/judge-sentences-man-to-more-than-seven-years-in-prison-for-robbing-usps-letter-carrier-in-chicago\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Sentences Man to More than Seven Years in Prison for Robbing USPS Letter Carrier in Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO \u2014 9\/23\/25 – A federal judge has sentenced a man to more than seven years in prison for robbing a U.S. Postal Service letter carrier at gunpoint in Chicago.<\/p>\n

The robbery occurred on the afternoon of Nov. 10, 2023, in the 900 block of North Francisco Avenue in Chicago.\u00a0 RICHARD THOMPSON approached the carrier as she was stepping out of her USPS vehicle.\u00a0 The carrier retreated into the vehicle when she saw Thompson approaching, but Thompson followed her inside and blocked her exit.\u00a0 He then displayed a handgun and demanded and obtained the carrier\u2019s USPS-issued Arrow Key, which opens certain postal collection boxes.\u00a0 Thompson then fled the area with the Arrow Key.\u00a0 He was arrested in May 2024 and has remained in federal custody since then.<\/p>\n

At the time of the robbery, Thompson was on pre-trial release in the Circuit Cook of Cook County for an unrelated criminal charge.<\/p>\n

Thompson, 54, of Chicago, pleaded guilty last year to a federal robbery charge.\u00a0 On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Andrea R. Wood sentenced Thompson to seven years and two months in federal prison.<\/p>\n

The sentence was announced by Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and\u00a0Ruth Mendon\u00e7a, Inspector-in-Charge of the Chicago Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.\u00a0 Valuable assistance was provided by the Chicago Police Department.\u00a0 The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Branka Cimesa.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. Postal Service serves a critically important government function and its employees must be allowed to deliver mail to the American people safely and securely,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Boutros.\u00a0 \u201cFurthermore, stealing a\u00a0mailbox Arrow Key is a serious crime; it gives criminals access to certain mailboxes of everyday citizens, who rely on the Postal Service to receive their mail.\u00a0 The U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office in Chicago will work closely with our law enforcement partners\u00a0to prosecute to the full extent of the law those individuals who seek to gain access to the public\u2019s mail whether through violence, theft, or fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis sentencing is another example of the roles postal inspectors and our law enforcement partners play in protecting Postal Service employees and customers,\u201d said USPIS Inspector-in-Charge Mendon\u00e7a.\u00a0 \u201cAs Postal Service employees continue to play an integral role in our communities, we are clear in our resolve to aggressively investigate anyone who brings harm to these invaluable public servants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO \u2014 9\/23\/25 – A federal judge has sentenced a man to more than seven years in prison for robbing a U.S. Postal Service letter carrier at gunpoint in Chicago. The robbery occurred on the afternoon of Nov. 10, 2023, in the 900 block of North Francisco Avenue in Chicago.\u00a0 RICHARD THOMPSON approached the carrier […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,72,110,89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-theftandfraud","category-under-siege","category-postal-crime","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38474","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=38474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38475,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38474\/revisions\/38475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}