Stole Gift Cards and Cash From Greeting Cards

Baltimore, Maryland – Dorothy Jean Gibson, age 56, of Windsor Mill, Maryland pleaded guilty today to theft of mail by a postal service employee.

The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein and Special Agent in Charge Paul Bowman of the U.S. Postal Service, Office of Inspector General (OIG).

According to Gibson’s plea agreement, she had been an employee of the United States Postal Service for approximately 13 years and worked as a mail processing clerk at the Linthicum Incoming Mail Facility (“IMF”). Among Gibson’s duties were manually feeding mail into a Delivery Barcode Sorter (DBCS), and preparing mail for delivery to postal customers. In November 2011, complaints were received that greeting cards containing gift cards that had been processed through the IMF did not make it to their final intended destination. In February 2012, a stack of opened greeting cards were found in the facility and were identified as having been processed by the machine operated by Gibson. On three occasions from April 5 to May 3, 2012, Special Agents with the Postal Service OIG videotaped Gibson at her machine. In the first video, within a 30 minute time frame, Gibson was seen tearing into 8 greeting cards, stealing gift cards, and placing the mail and its contents into her purse. Another video of Gibson, taken on April 24, 2012, captures her opening approximately 25 greeting cards and placing cash and gift cards into her pocket.

After Gibson was seen stealing mail again on May 3, 2012, she was confronted by Postal Service OIG Special Agents and the stolen mail was recovered from Gibson’s purse. Federal search warrants executed at Gibson’s car and residence recovered additional stolen mail. In total, 71 mail pieces and 50 gift cards/personal checks were recovered. Gibson’s abuse of her position of trust impacted more than 250 victims and resulted in an attempted loss of between $10,000 and $30,000.

Gibson faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander scheduled sentencing for January 11, 2013 at 11:00 a.m.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the U.S. Postal Service, Office of Inspector General for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachel M. Yasser, who is prosecuting the case.