Baltimore, Maryland - U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander sentenced Jeffrey L. Shipley, age 48, of Millersville, Maryland today to 20 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for stealing and destroying mail while employed as a postal employee. Judge Hollander also entered an order that Shipley pay $19,358.75 in restitution.
The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; and Special Agent in Charge Paul Bowman of the U.S. Postal Service, Office of Inspector General.
According to his plea agreement, Shipley worked as a postal service carrier beginning in 1993. From about 2005 to March 10, 2014, Shipley stole and embezzled mail. Shipley was a letter carrier at the Brooklyn Carrier Annex from 1994 to January 2007, at the Parkville Branch until August 2007, and at the Catonsville Carrier Annex from August 4, 2007 to 2014.
Shipley embezzled mail that he was entrusted to deliver on his assigned route, and stole mail directly from the Catonsville Carrier Annex that was not part of his assigned route. Shipley also took Postal Service property, including stools, mail bags, signs and a mirror, valued at over $500.
Agents executed a search warrant at Shipley’s residence on March 10, 2014 and at a storage facility that he rented in Glen Burnie on April 18, 2014. Agents seized 20,413 pieces of mail, including gift cards and credit cards. Agents also seized 55 gift cards and 15 credit cards which were located separately from the stolen and embezzled mail, along with prescription bottles of medicine, checks, passports, a U.S. citizenship and immigration card, jewelry, clothes, books, a Nook, sunglasses and other items.
The total loss resulting from the scheme is over $10,000 and involved over 250 victims.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the U.S. Postal Service - OIG for its work in the investigation and thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Judson T. Mihok, who prosecuted the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
