BUFFALO, N.Y.-Acting U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy, Jr. announced today that Richard D’Arcy, Jr., 37, of Lancaster, NY, pleaded guilty to theft of mail by a postal employee before U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Marie P. Grisanti, who is handling the case, stated that on August 2, 2016, a U.S. Postal Service mail carrier discovered 52 pieces of mail, in delivery order, in a blue collection box on McKinley Parkway in Buffalo. It was determined that each of those pieces of mail were never delivered to Fisher Road (Route 53) in West Seneca, NY. Some of the mail was postmarked July 30, 2016, and was supposed to be delivered on August 1, 2016. The defendant delivered Route 53 on August 1, 2016. He also lived approximately a half of a mile from the blue mailbox in which the undelivered mail was discovered.
A review of the Global Positioning System (GPS) used to track the delivery of mail parcels showed that on August 1, 2016, D’Arcy drove through the portion of Route 53 on Fisher Road where the mail was supposed to be delivered. A comparison of the GPS data from the day before and the day after showed the postal carrier made many more stops and took much longer to deliver the same portion of Fisher Road.
A subsequent search of the defendant’s car uncovered multiple bundles of undelivered advertisements, placards, and First Class mail. D’Arcy opened some of the mail and took the contents, which included solicitations from various veterans groups, children’s cancer foundations, and animal protection groups, which contained a $1 bill or other coin currency, seeking additional contributions from patrons.
The plea is the culmination of an investigation on the part of the United States Postal Service, Office of the Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Monica Weyler, Eastern Area Field Office, Philadelphia, PA.
Sentencing is scheduled for July 10, 2017, at 10:00 a.m. before Judge Vilardo.
USPS GPS tracking of Letter Carrier leads to felony charge for throwing away mail
Shocking.
Time to fire this one, making us ALL look bad!!!
No sympathy for thieves and liars in this business!!
This guy gets my vote for “Idiot of the Year”. The article doesn’t specify whether he is a rural or city carrier, but that doesn’t matter. What would be laughable were it not criminal is the fact that carriers have GPS equipped scanners that track them very step of the way, and record time spent delivering mail, lunch breaks, street breaks, travel to and from the route and time spent assisting other routes that may be short handed and/or overburdened.
There is a contract rule in the NALC’s JCAM that states that management has to actually catch carriers suspected of this kind of stupidity, padding breaks and lunches, not delivering mail, etc., in the act. However, in this case physical evidence works just as well, as in finding some of the undelivered mail in the carrier’s car or dumping mail that was supposed to be delivered to customers into a collection box.
Carriers who do this must be incredibly stupid. They may be drunk, stoned, or both. Or they’re just not thinking things through. Or all of the above. I can cite many instances in my 32+ year career of people dumping mail (either in collection boxes or dumpsters), just not delivering mail, usually DPS (presorted mail) and bringing it back or driving drunk. I do not understand why people would want to throw away a good career. The USPS didn’t make me rich, but I was able to retire and saved up enough to not have to work again. Part of that was because my wife and I couldn’t have kids. But this guy probably has family and does stupid shit like this.
When you know Big Postal Brother is watching you, and you still do stupid crap like this, don’t ask me for sympathy, although I do feel sorry for your family, whom you really hurt because you have the brains of linguini.