Sheriff's Deputy Nabs Postal Worker Dumping Mail In Woods

A deputy sheriff caught an off-duty letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service in Roxboro, NC, last week as he dumped seven garbage bags of undelivered mail along deserted road in the woods outside of Durham, NC.

More than 1,000 pieces of mail ranging from a variety of direct mail solicitations, catalogs and parcels to car titles, credit card and utility bills and birthday cards, some dating back to last November, were retrieved by Deputy Durham County Sheriff C. S. Chamberlain.

Both the letter carrier and the retrieved mail, most of which was addressed to residents in Roxboro, in adjacent Person County, were turned over to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Durham. A spokesman for the postal inspection service refused to identify the letter carrier pending the results of an investigation and the possible filing of criminal charges.

Chamberlain said he followed the letter carrier's car, which looked like one used in a series of recent burglaries, onto a deserted road and watched as the man tossed the bags, some of them ripped with pieces of mail sticking out, into the woods. He also said the letter carrier admitted during questioning that the bags contained undelivered mail which he stored over a period of time at his home "and didn't want to take back to the post office" where he worked.