A man conspired with two others to steal money, gift cards and checks from mail in Louisiana and was caught after a police chase that ended with a car crash, federal officials said.
The 24-year-old from New Orleans worked with the two others to steal mail from a U.S. post office and mailboxes in 2022, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana said in a Dec. 19 news release.
Now, the man will serve three years of probation and pay a $200 special assessment fee, according to the release.
From December 2021 to February 2022, the three men conspired to steal valuables from mail for their personal use, court documents said.
The men obtained a stolen Honda CRV and license plates and a universal postal key and decided to split the proceeds, according to court documents.
While one of the men drove on Jan. 30, another used the "arrow" key to steal mail, and the 24-year-old sat in the back of the stolen vehicle, according to court documents.
The men stole mail at one post office, but the key did not work at a second location, documents said.
Then, Jefferson Parish sheriff's detectives, working with USPS inspectors, tried to conduct a traffic stop on the men, but they drove away, according to court records.
After a police chase that ended in a crash, the men ran away, but officers were able to recover more than 30 pieces of stolen mail inside the vehicle, court documents said.
"Among the items found inside of the crashed vehicle were numerous personal and business checks not belonging to the defendants, a stolen license plate and stolen temporary tag, two USPS mail crates, and a USPS 'arrow key,'" prosecutors said.
The 24-year-old pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal mail and possession of stolen mail in September, court records show.
Mail theft
During the early COVID-19 pandemic, there was a sharp increase in mail theft complaints, according to a September 2023 report issued by the U.S. Postal Service's Office of Inspector General.
From March 2020 through February 2021, there were 299,020 mail theft complaints - a 161% increase "compared to the same period in the previous year," the report said.