Warrensburg And Kansas City Postal Worker Indicted

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced two postal workers were indicted by a federal grand jury today, in separate and unrelated cases, for stealing thousands of pieces of mail and for stealing money from a cash drawer.

USA v. Thompson

David Thompson, 54, of Warrensburg, Mo., was charged with the delay and destruction of mail by a postal employee. Thompson, who began his career with the U.S. Postal Service in 1990, was the regular mail carrier assigned to a delivery route from the Warrensburg post office on 201 E. Gay Street.

Today’s indictment alleges that Thompson stole at least 20,000 pieces of mail addressed to 5,571 recipients. Thompson allegedly threw the mail into a dumpster or kept it in his house and personal vehicle rather than delivering the mail to its recipients.

According to the indictment, Thompson’s supervisors suspected in late 2013 that he was drinking alcohol while on duty and while delivering mail on his official route. During their investigation, postal inspectors installed a covert camera in his delivery vehicle. From Dec. 16, 2013, to Jan. 18, 2014, the indictment says, Thompson was observed on video drinking five to eight beers each day while delivering his route. He allegedly hid the beers in his mail satchel and poured them into a cup, which he kept in his cup holder. The camera also revealed that Thompson was not delivering all of his mail, the indictment says, and that he was either throwing the mail away into a dumpster, or keeping it in his house and personal vehicle.

Postal inspectors recovered four black plastic trash bags of mail from the dumpster behind the Elk’s Lodge (where Thompson is a member and serves as Exalted Ruler) located at 822 E. Young Ave., Warrensburg, on Jan. 17, 2014. The four bags contained 44 pieces of first-class mail, 57 pieces of periodical mail and 463 pieces of standard mail.  Based on the postmarks, the indictment says, it was confirmed that this mail should have been delivered by Thompson the week of January 11, 2014.

Thompson allegedly threw additional pieces of mail into dumpsters and secreted mail to his residence and to his personal vehicle, in order to save time and to enable him to complete his route on time, and because secreting and throwing away some of the mail made for smaller bundles of mail, which were easier for him to handle.

USA v. Crisp

Jacob Crisp, 24, formerly of Kansas City, Mo., was charged with misappropriating federal postal funds.

According to today’s indictment, Crisp was a sales and service distribution associate working at the front counter of the North Kansas City, Mo., post office. From June 3, 2013, to Feb. 11, 2014, Crisp allegedly engaged in a scheme to void $5,040 worth of retail transactions in the post office’s computer system and replace them with no-sale transactions. This allowed him to embezzle the money paid by customers for post office products, including stamps, the indictment says.

The indictment cites several instances in which Crisp was observed on video conducting sales transactions, but hitting the “void” key so that the sale wasn’t recorded in the computer terminal. Crisp was also observed on video taking money from the cash drawer and putting it in his pocket, the indictment says.

These cases are being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel M. Nelson. They were investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Dickinson cautioned that the charges contained in these indictments are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.