U.S. Postal Service mail carrier (Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
CHICAGO (CBS) – A former mailman who figured he needed the money more than “The Servants of Mary” was sentenced to 2 ½ years in prison on Tuesday, for stealing mail containing more than $275,000 in charity donations.
WBBM Newsradio’s John Cody reports investigators said 41-year-old Frederick L. Taylor would sometimes set aside donation mail in his postal truck, and sometimes stuff it in his mail satchel and take it home for processing.
He pleaded guilty to possessing 29,400 pieces of mail containing more than $275,000 in donations intended for “The Servants of Mary,” a charity on his mail route in Brewyn.
He netted $17,000 in cash from the stolen mail. The rest of the stolen donations were checks, credit card payments, or money orders he could not use.
U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve sentenced him to 30 months in prison, and ordered him to pay more than $275,000 in restitution to a third-party trust administrator that covered the charity’s lost donations.
Taylor is scheduled to report to prison on Feb. 21.
