Feds: Postal Worker Stashed Nearly 50,000 Pieces Of Undelivered Mail In Her California Apartment

The Smoking Gun ^ | 8/26/2016 | Staff

[simpson96]

A U.S. Postal Service employee stashed nearly 50,000 pieces of undelivered mail in her California home, according to a criminal information filed against the worker.

Federal investigators charge that Sherry Watanabe hid "approximately 48,288 pieces of United States mail" in her apartment. The mail was intended for delivery to customers along Watanabe’s route in Placentia, an Orange County city.

Watanabe, 48, was named in a one-count felony criminal information filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. In a plea agreement with prosecutors, Watanabe has admitted to the mail hoarding.

According to the plea agreement, Watanabe was hired as a mail carrier in June 2006, and she began collecting “large quantities of such mail” in her Placentia residence in 2011. While the undelivered mail was seized by law enforcement agents in late-2013, court filings do not indicate why more than two years passed before Watanabe was charged.

Though Watanabe faces a statutory maximum of three years in custody, prosecutors have agreed to recommend that a term of imprisonment not exceed “the low end of the applicable Sentencing Guidelines range.”

In similar previous prosecutions, mail carriers have claimed that the volume on their routes was so onerous that they opted to hide the mail instead of delivering it.

[COBOL2Java]

Reminds me of our USPS carrier...*Drunken Al*.

We were at the end of his route, and the first house on the street. A couple of times a month, Al would put ALL the mail for our street in our mailbox ....and just skip the delivery. When I walked the dogs around the block, I’d drop the mail to folks. It was a local joke. Everyone covered for Al, b/c he was going through a rough divorce.

Small town stuff.

You ever see the Chevy Chase movie "Funny Farm"? They have a USPS guy (played marvelously by Kevin Conway) who does the same thing. Their home is at the end of the route, except in his situation (as I recall), he just speeds by and throws their mail out the truck. Throughout the movie Chevy Chase tries different ways to get him to stop...

[Daffynition]

I’ll have to look that film up...I know, I’ll love it.

THX for the tip. Sounds like its right up my alley. ;)

[oh8eleven]

more than two years passed before Watanabe was charged
Your gubmint at work.

[JimRed]

Maybe she delivered First Class and stashed the rest.

Right! Maybe she vetted out the junk mail.

[Huskrrrr]

Years ago I suspected my damaged copies of National Review had been slashed by our postal worker, using a knife. I complained to the USPO and miraculously the slash marks disappeared on future issues.

[Darteaus94025]

If it’s all junk mail, I say we put her in charge of the Postal Service.

[Dahoser]

Federal investigators charge that Sherry Watanabe hid "approximately 48,288 pieces of United States mail" in her apartment.

Approximately 48,288? The only person who uses 48,288 as an approximation has pointed ears and a greenish hue.

[OldMissileer]

Years ago I suspected my damaged copies of National Review had been slashed by our postal worker, using a knife. I complained to the USPO and miraculously the slash marks disappeared on future issues.

Something like that happened with us.

Several years ago all of our magazines started arriving very late and when they were delivered they were all bent/used/torn and many had coffee stains and dried rings where drink containers had been placed on them.

I complained to our local Postmaster and he did nothing so I was able to contact USPS Headquarters in DC one day while I was in my office only several blocks away.

After my talk with HQ the problem went away immediately.

[Arm_Bears]

There should be a felony indictment for each piece of undelivered mail.

How many people didn’t receive needed checks?

How many people didn’t receive bills and got hit with late fees and lines on their credit report?

Lazy bitch.

[simpson96]

LOL

[Ellendra]

She should be required to pay the late fees for every person whose bills and/or payments were found in that stash she hid.

[Vigilanteman]

Spock would probably take it out to at least three decimal places if he were doing an approximation.

[Thank You Rush]

“”Maybe she delivered First Class and stashed the rest.
Many would consider that a favor.””

I agree. I am so tired of bringing in the junk mail and spending the time to remove all identifiers to shred. I think we ought to be able to BILL the companies sending out the junk. It is very irksome and time consuming. You can’t count on your name being only in one place; they put the name on all pages..Seems it gets worse every day.

[bicyclerepair]

Course I live in a tight burb. But our mail carriers are nice people.

Just driving along in their little truck stopping at each box. I wave every time if I’m outside and they’re always friendly. Never had one problem with mail in my 25 yrs here.

[sparklite2]

If it was junk mail, she has my thanks.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Scary how much Life Imitates Seinfeld, eh?

[bgill]

“Cue the deer” is my fav quote from the movie. Not going to tell you what is means so as not to ruin it for you.

[Buckeye McFrog]

If it was junk mail, she has my thanks.

Honey, we won the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes!

.....in 2007

[bgill]

Same here. It takes a hour or longer to shred a month’s worth of junk mail. If the tree huggers were so worried about trees, they should go after junk mail.

[AZLiberty]

Many would consider that a favor.

50,000 items would be about one week's junk mail for our neighborhood. It would be a BIG favor.

As Paul McCartney would say, "My little lady gets behind."