(NewsNation) — As mail and packages continue to be targeted by thieves, a federal investigation found that it’s actually some postal workers are the ones stealing items.
According to a report by the United States Postal Service’s Inspector General, internal mail theft is attributed to having no nationwide policy restricting personal belongings on the workroom floor; high supervisor and manager vacancy rates and not having periodic mail theft awareness employee training. While processing facilities have cameras, some of them were not working because of switch, server or cable failures.
Another reason is that criminal organizations are recruiting workers to infiltrate the Postal Service system.
These groups are “targeting, recruiting, and colluding with postal employees to move narcotics through the postal network and to steal checks — both personal and government-issued checks — credit cards, and other valuables from the mail,” USPS Inspector General Tammy L. Hull said.
Federal prosecutors in December charged two postal workers with stealing more than $1 million in business checks at facilities in Virginia and North Carolina, the Dallas Morning News reported. There was also a mail handler in St. Louis, Missouri stole 55 out of 150 packages out of a truck. That investigation found that other mail handlers were working as lookouts while stashing and storing packages in their jackets.
In another incident, a mail clerk under surveillance searched trays for greeting cards that contained gift cards and moved them to another tray during their shift. The clerk then placed these cards in a backpack.
This is a major way these thefts are occurring, according to the investigation.