Another USPS Worker Steals on the Job

A Maryland woman used her position as a U.S. Postal Service (USPS) clerk to obtain other people’s private information and then steal thousands of dollars.

That woman, Breanna Lee Cartledge, wrongfully accessed USPS money orders and individual pieces of mail to pull off these crimes. This is according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland. Cartledge had co-conspirators, whom U.S. Attorneys did not identify.

RELATED: These Three NASA Programs Bleed Taxpayer Money

“For example, after a co-conspirator texted Cartledge requesting pictures of checks, Cartledge sent the co-conspirator images of at least nine separate money orders or checks that contained personal identifying information with the intent that the information be used to create fake checks to steal from victim accounts,” U.S. Attorneys said.

Cartledge negotiated a counterfeit check fraudulently drawn for $4,900 from the account of one victim, but the victim’s bank reversed the transaction. 

Cartledge pleaded guilty this month to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud. She faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison.  U.S. District Judge Lydia K. Griggsby has scheduled sentencing for Oct. 19.

This is not the first time that USPS workers have committed crimes on the job.

As RIVR reported in April, a USPS worker in Georgia accepted bribes from a drug trafficker and hand-delivered cocaine and marijuana along his mail route, on taxpayer time.

When that man, Robert Sheppard, 61, later had to take disability leave from the postal service he recruited his co-workers to take over for him.

IN THE NEWS: Pride Month Put Us on the Train to Crazy Town

Congress designed the USPS to operate as a self-sustaining entity that, like a business, would cover its operating costs primarily with revenues from selling certain products and services. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2007, however, postal service expenses began exceeding its revenue.

As the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported in 2021, this has led to total net losses of $87 billion from FY 2007 through 2020, and $188 billion in total unfunded liabilities and debt.

The GAO recommends that Congress consider “fundamentally reexamining key aspects of postal service in the United States.”

Send story tips and other story suggestions to [email protected]