Dominique C. Garrett, a 24 year-old Postal Support Employee (PSE) at the Saline, Michigan Post Office, has been charged with misappropriation of over $61,000 in postal funds..
The initial complaint ,filed back in January, contends Garrett stole the money between April-December 2014.
In November 2014, postal officials noticed “irregularities” with bank deposits at the Saline branch, J.E. Marchak, a special agent with the postal service, wrote in an affidavit.
USPS-OIG Agents then installed “two covert cameras” near where the clerks count out the day’s money.
Garrett was observed on the video displaying “unusual” behavior and it was determined she had access to the nightly deposits, the affidavit said.
Investigators monitored her further and witnessed Garrett stuffing money in her shirt, according to records. The bank deposits didn’t match up. Federal investigators said the banking activity combined with what they saw on the video was consistent with “a kiting scheme.”
Garrett confessed to the investigators when they questioned her. She said she took the money because of financial hardships, records say.
“Garrett said the first time she took a deposit was in April 2014,” Marchak wrote in the affidavit. “Garrett remembered it was near her son’s second birthday and she needed money. Garrett stated she was behind in her car payments at the time, but wanted to put on a nice birthday for her son.”
She said she knew she was going to get caught sooner or later and was planning on putting the money back, according to the affidavit. Garrett said she never wanted to really take the deposits and looked at it like a loan. Garrett stated while she took the cash from the deposits, she had kept all the paperwork associated with deposits (checks, deposit slips) with the intention to pay it back.
The postal services losses totaled $61,366.
It wasn’t clear from records when Garrett’s next court appearance is scheduled.
So why did it take so long for them to catch her?
@RayRay- PSE’s can be lead clerks
You are all missing the point here. The PSE needed money for her Son’s birthday party, and to catch up on car payments, and simply “borrowed” the money from the nightly deposits with the intention to pay it back. That PSE must have thrown her son one hell of a party, and must be driving a really expensive car. That $61,000.00 she “borrowed” can be paid back over the next thirty (30) years of her continued employment with the P.O. Now the P.O. will only get blood out of stone, and it will cost them more to actually remove her from the service. That’s why the P.O. is on it’s way out. Plus the P.O. allows supervisors/Postmasters to steal every day, just by them showing up for work and doing NOTHING!!!!
Glad i got out with the last $15K Vera……………”Every Day at the PO is Like our FIRST day in Business”
Well we have a Post Master that thinks getting sued for her negligence is no big deal. (straight out of her mouth!)
The amount is well over (count the zeros) $3,000,000.00…..might be higher than that even now. And it’s going to happen, we are going to loose in court 100%. Reason being there is a custodian who is also a farmer, and he is part of the Co-Op that’s suing! Plus 5-6 clerks who are going to be called to testify in a federal court. PS: she still employed here!!
because the most unqualified and lazy craft employees are put in management and they are kissing all new hires !@#% this is the norm!! heaven help the honest workers!
postal pse letter carrier’s in the ny city metro area have a 90% quit rate in first 90 days……….with 92 million out of work-amazing. in addition to window clerks they use pse’s to do the reg close out mail. what a dump.
Letter Carrier casuals are now called CCA’s and you can thank Cliff Guffey, the ex APWU President, who was in bed with Donahoe, for signing an agreement that allowed for the percentage of casuals to go up to 20% and the stupidity of the APWU members for ratifying their CBA,and the arbitrators saw fit to impose it in the other union contracts.
Did no one notice sales going down? Where was management?
So lets see how the 2 tier pay system is going after the Postal Service goes in the red for $61,000. You get what you pay for. Now they will need to train someone else’
Just last week a carrier was taking home the mail and not delivering to the customers.
Just might take a look how good the PSE program is going.
Not unusual… how about 1 day in jail for every dollar stolen?
that’s fair! she was going to pay it back. The money was for her little boys birthday party. Or was it for her crack party, oops.
The story is not clear how this PSE had access to postal funds…was she a PSE window clerk?? If so, the LSSA (Lead Associate) has to verify all funds to make sure they are correct, this would indicate a problem with the clerk in question. If some non-window PSE had access to postal funds, something is very, very wrong in this post office. Ultimately, the problem lies with whatever management is responsible for this station. One wonders how a person can take that much money in that short of a period and not get caught??
I will add more info later. I was trying to fully understand how she had access to the daily deposits.
She did get caught. The LSSA (me) I verify funds and seal them up. I am not responsible for sending the funds out the next day. If the deposit is not dispatched or the bag gets switched how would I know?
20 years at the Post office and system has been working fine. Also the LSSA is not the only person capable of handling the deposit. Any clerk with the knowledge can do it. When you work with people for years you couldn’t imagine they would do such a thing
She worked there for about 3 years. Some PSEs are Lead Clerks
Niecy-If PSE’s,who are casual employees’are Lead Clerks ,which is a level 7 assignment ,in your office it is violation of the APWU contract and the stewards have chosen not to file a grievance or management is doing it while it’s in the grievance pipeline.Same is true if they are 204B’s.
I am the T7. She was not.
I met a PSE who was the Lead Clerk. I assume it was because no one wanted the job
It is not a violation if they have 1 year of service I believe.
What the hell is a PSE handling money for ? Right down the tubes…. Proud to be a Postal employee ….not !!!!!
USPS is assigning PSEs to work the window as soon as they are hired.
In our office, not only do they put PSEs at the window, but when our retail supervisor left to a cushy job elsewhere in the PO, the only person they could find to take the supervisor job was a PSE who has only been here a few months. This will not last long.
You are right “postal” because two PSE’s in my office, were hired in December and they work the window.