April 15, 2015 Little Rock, Arkansas  – When complaints about lost mail led to a whodunit at the Bee Branch post office last year, the U.S. Postal Service used a piece of rigged mail to capture the culprit — who turned out to be the mail lady herself.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that 35-year-old Sheila Watts admitted on Tuesday to opening cards and letters from the Bee Branch post office, and taking gift cards and cash.

Watts pleaded guilty to a charge of theft of mail by a postal employee, for which she will be sentenced at a later date. She will get credit at sentencing for pleading guilty before her case could be submitted to a federal grand jury for possible indictment.

According to what Assistant U.S. Attorney Hunter Bridges told U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes, an investigation into complaints of missing mail led federal postal investigators to employ a “mail test card” that had an electronic transmitter and $50 cash inside.

The test card, which resembled a mailed card waiting to be delivered, was planted somewhere inside the post office. The prosecutor did not say where or reveal too many details about the investigative technique.

Bridges said that while an investigator watched, Watts arrived at work the morning that the card was in place. Later in the day, after she had delivered her mail and went home, the investigator found the test card was missing.

Bridges said the investigator went to Watts’ home, where he asked her whether she had the card, and she admitted she had taken it. The prosecutor didn’t say whether the investigator had picked up any signals from the transmitter outside the house.

Bridges said Watts also admitted to previous thefts of gift cards and cash from other mail she was supposed to deliver, and that some other stolen mail was found in her house. He didn’t say how long Watts had worked at the post office, how many reports of stolen mail had been received or whether the total amount of loss has been determined.

When sentenced at a later date, after a pre-sentence report is prepared, Watts will be required to make full restitution to the victims.

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