Postal carrier’s meth habit led to 30,000 pieces of stolen mail, attorney says (video)
33-year-old U.S. Postal Service employee was on “a two-year meth bender” when he stole more than 30,000 pieces of mail bound for residents throughout much of Portland, said his defense attorney Thursday, just before a judge sentenced the carrier to three years in prison.
John Paul Osburn grew up in eastern Oregon and had no criminal history when the Postal Service hired him in June 2013 as a back-up mail carrier [city carrier assistant] who would fill in for other carriers when they were sick or on vacation. But within months, he and his girlfriend were stealing bundles full of birthday cards with cash inside, gift cards, credit cards, mail-order medications and DVDs to help fuel their drug habit, investigators say.
They also stole voters’ mail-in ballots, DMV registrations, official legal mail from Multnomah County Circuit Court, billing statements, medical-test results and financial documents, though the items had little value to the pair.
It’s too bad the Postal Service gets so much attention when employees go awry, but we all know that meth is a huge problem everywhere. I won’t get into specifics, but at least one employee I knew was horrendously hooked on meth, and eventually she just quit, knowing she would never be able to improve her attendance.
That’s not the only case by a long shot. I have meth heads on my route, men and women who look like starving scarecrows. One woman I seriously doubt weighs 90 pounds sopping wet. She jerks like she’s having a bad seizure because her muscles and nervous system simply can barely communicate any more, and most of her teeth are rotted out. I was no angel in my early 20’s, but all I did was drink and smoke pot or some derivative like hash or Thai sticks. Acid scared me enough to never want to try it, I wouldn’t do coke or anything else because I couldn’t handle the beer and dope!
I got smart and quit both, having gotten hired by the USPS, and did not want to lose this job after going for a few years with a low paying job and being interested in nothing but partying. I knew I had to start acting like a grown up and while it was hard quitting, pot especially, I’m a healthier better person for it.
But meth doesn’t do that. It simply takes such a hold on the user that giving it up is next to impossible. Back in the early ’80’s when my friends and I were partiers, we would have thought that anybody who would smoke that crap or shoot it up was insane, and we were right.
I do not understand why people are attracted to such a deadly drug. My wife and I were not able to have kids, and I’m glad I don’t have to worry about them getting into that horrible shit. The carrier in Oregon screwed the proverbial pooch, and let’s hope others with addictions wise up and get help while they still can.