A U.S. Postal Service employee from Inglewood and his half-brother pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from an alleged burglary and multiple armed robberies of mail trucks — crimes resulting in nearly $240,000 in cash being stolen, the Department of Justice announced Friday.
William Crosby, the employee, knew when mail trucks were transporting cash from money order and merchandise sales because he used to work as a supervisor, according to federal prosecutors. That information is not known to all Postal Service employees, a indictment in the case states.
Through a burglary last year and two armed robberies of mail truck drivers this year, 31-year-old Crosby was able to steal about $238,457 in cash, prosecutors said.
Before moving onto armed robberies of drivers, he allegedly targeted the Postal Service through a burglary he coordinated with other accomplices on Aug. 1 of last year.
William Crosby told some of his co-conspirators — who the DOJ said are still unknown — that there would be a large amount of cash inside a mail truck expected to be at the Dockweiler Post Office’s loading dock in South L.A. that day, according to federal prosecutors. A container holding more than $128,000 in cash, which was inside the truck, was allegedly stolen by a man wearing a Postal Service uniform shirt.
Months later, on Feb. 1, William Crosby allegedly gave information about a mail truck carrying cash at the Wagner Post Office in Inglewood, where he worked. Again, prosecutors say he told some still unknown co-conspirators the location of the truck as he said when it was leaving the office.
A minivan blocked that mail truck just outside the post office before the driver was threatened at gunpoint, federal prosecutors allege. The robber stole more than $37,000 in cash, though prosecutors have not identified who the suspect is.