SEPTEMBER 2, 2015 LAS VEGAS (KSNV News3LV) – Equipment belonging to the U.S. Postal Service might appear minor if it ends up missing. But multiple thefts cost the agency – and you – plenty.
Investigators set up a sting operation at a White Plains, N.Y., postal yard. The targets of the suspect were pallets – huge containers that transport mail from one postal facility to another
Steven Ianaccone, an independent truck driver who delivered mail to the facility, had access to these pallets and was selling them to a recycling plant.
“We were able to set-up a buy, in which we provided Mr. Ianaccone with investigative funds, that is money to purchase that and even rented a Ryder truck for him,” said U.S. Postal Inspector Zajo Hoti. “He drove it into the facility, as always.”
From there, authorities followed the Ryder truck to a third party who was prepared to pay thousands of dollars for the valuable pallets.
“He was not an employee in picking up truckloads of our pallets,” Hoti said.
Postal pallets were then grinded down and re-sold across the U.S. border. The recycler will grind them up and they would eventually turn them into some type of other plastic product.