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Postal worker pleads guilty to stealing cash from mail

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By Ann McGlynn | Tuesday, March 04, 2008 | 4 comment(s)

A postal worker who stole $20 from a birthday card pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court, Davenport.

Donna Cox, who worked in Blue Grass, Iowa, pleaded guilty to theft of mail matter by an officer or employee, which could send her to prison for up to five years.

On Aug. 2, Cox did not deliver a birthday card to a house on her mail route, federal officials said. Instead, she opened the card and removed a $20 bill, they added.

Cox began work as a letter carrier in August 1998, according to records from her request for unemployment benefits, which was denied.

Her supervisor began receiving complaints in June 2007 that people along her route had not received some mail and that their mail had been opened and then taped shut.

According to state unemployment records:

On that day in August, a postal inspector put a marked $20 bill in a greeting card and addressed the card to a patron on the claimant’s route. The employer noted that the claimant picked up the greeting card.

A postal inspector followed the claimant as she made her deliveries.

After the claimant delivered mail to the address to which the greeting card with the money was addressed, the inspector received permission to examine the contents of that patron’s mailbox.

The envelope that had money in it was not in the mailbox.

After Cox returned from her route, the postal inspector noticed her purse in her vehicle. Her purse was not zipped, and the inspector noted a number of currency bills in it.

After Cox gave the inspector permission to look at the money, the inspector discovered Cox had the marked $20 bill that had been in the greeting card.

After the inspector explained to Cox that the $20 bill in her purse was money that had been in a greeting card envelope, the carrier admitted she had taken the money from the envelope.

Cox was then suspended.

Ann McGlynn can be contacted at (563) 383-2336 or amcglynn@qctimes.com.