Friday, August 26, 2005

Postal workers charged with thefts

From stealing coupons to DVDs, Metro area sees string of crimes as arrests of employees fell in '04.

By David Shepardson / The Detroit News

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DETROIT -- Authorities charged a U.S. Postal employee Thursday with stealing hundreds of cigarette coupons over a three-year period worth more than $10,000.

The charge is the latest in a string of arrests of postal workers in Metro Detroit, charged with stealing everything from rolls of stamps to postal money orders to DVDs.

Mail theft arrests jumped 5.5 percent in the last fiscal year, though the vast majority of 6,618 people in the United States charged with mail theft were nonemployees. Nationally, the number of postal employees charged with crimes, including stealing mail dropped from 87 in 2003 to 63 in 2004.

Daniel Krajewski, 57, of Sterling Heights was charged with stealing and embezzling mail in U.S. District Court in Detroit. He's expected to be arraigned next week.

During a six-week investigation, inspectors saw and videotaped Krajewski stealing coupons from major tobacco companies and hiding them in the trash or in his lunch carrier, according to an affidavit filed by Inspector Andrew L. Gottfried.

Krajewski said he originally began taking the coupons "to provide some family members cigarette coupons because of the financial difficulties they were experiencing," Gottfried wrote. Krajewski said he started selling the coupons to a tobacco store owner who gave him 30 percent of the coupon's value -- about $10,000 over the last three years. A search of his lunch box turned up 127 mailings from tobacco companies, while a search of his home turned up another 68 coupons in a cabinet.

Calls to phone listings for Krajewski went unanswered.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Gorland, chief of general crimes in Detroit, said her office has prosecuted two postal employees in the last year for stealing DVDs from the Internet video rental company Netflix.

"The Postal Service takes very seriously the theft of all mail. It is a zero-tolerance policy," Gorland said, "whether it's coupons or checks."

More than 690 million pieces of mail handled by the U.S. Postal Service travel across the country every day.

William Wrack admitted to stealing more than 400 DVDs over a three-month period worth $8,840 that were destined for delivery to about 122 customers in southeast Michigan. He pleaded guilty in May was sentenced by U.S. District Judge John Feikens to two years probation and ordered to pay $1,100 in fines and costs.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service's 2004 annual report detailed a number of high-profile employee thefts.

In Florida, a mail handler was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2002 after stealing thousands of DVDs from Netflix, costing the company more than $100,000.

In Atlanta, inspectors arrested a postal clerk who had stolen more than $100,000 in U.S. Treasury checks -- and the clerk drew a four-year-prison sentence.

In Philadelphia, an airport services manager was charged with rifling through greeting cards in the mail and stealing about $200 a day, while two postal workers in Columbus, Ohio, allegedly stole bank statements from the mail and working with seven others printed counterfeit checks on a home computer -- stealing $74,000 from 38 victims' accounts, the Justice Department said.

Also this week in Detroit, postal employee Tamara Cook was charged with stealing cash from the register at the Berkley U.S. Post Office. She allegedly voided transactions after undercover inspectors purchased rolls of stamps for $37 each. She then voided the transactions and pocketed the money, said U.S. Postal Inspector Rodney Weiss.

Cook pleaded not guilty and was released on $10,000 personal bond by U.S. Magistrate Judge Donald Scheer, pending a Sept. 13 preliminary examination.

A total of 5,531 postal employees and nonemployees were convicted of possessing stolen mail or stealing mail.

You can reach David Shepardson at (313) 222-2028 or dshepardson@detnews.com.