Posted on 11/30/2010 10:18:27 PM PST by iowamark
DENVER- A former Denver-area postal worker who stole more than 11,000 packages and sold the items for more than $85,000 has been sentenced to 2.5 years in federal prison...
The items included DVDs, CDs and lingerie from Victoria's Secret.
Authorities say Schmauder sold most of the items to a store in Littleton.
"A number of people in the public in the Littleton area were complaining they weren't receiving their packages,"...
Scmauder was allowed to walk out of court Tuesday but will have to report to prison soon. He almost didn't get to walk out when he got into a shouting match with the judge at his sentencing. He admitted to stealing more than 50 packages a night, several times a week.
The Postal Service estimates the losses at $283,913, but say there's no way to know how much was stolen.
Schmauder claimed he was addicted to stealing and did it to pay off his debts.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbs4denver.com ...
“Schmauder claimed he was addicted to stealing and did it to pay off his debts.”
This man’s concept of addiction is all messed up.
I can’t believe he got in a shouting match with the judge and was allowed to leave the courtroom.
Let’s see if white boy shows up to serve his time.
Let me get this straight. He was convicted; but he was allowed to leave the courtroom.
I swear the judges now are competing to see who can do the dumbest thing.
Apparently so.
If this keeps up the only way to stop them will be with snipers... and then there’ll be that whole civil war thing.
Whoever said crime doesn't pay, lied!
No kidding. Isn’t messing with the mail a Federal Crime?
If you or I did the same thing, it would be a $500,000 fine and 20 years in prison.
He got off light. This is a huge problem with our alleged “judicial” system.
That's pretty smart (/sarc)
>> “A number of people in the public in the Littleton area were complaining they weren’t receiving their packages,”...
Aside from heaping scorn on this worthless scumbag thief...
This went on for TWO AND A HALF YEARS and involved ELEVEN THOUSAND STOLEN PACKAGES (and, one presumes, nearly that many complaints) BEFORE THE POST OFFICE *INVESTIGATED* and *ISOLATED* the PROBLEM???
WTF is up with THAT?
He is a Federal Worker. There is a different court system for regular Peons.
Whatever you think those things are "worth" they are actually incredibly inexpensive to replace. That's how NETFLIX stays in business.
Reading carefully he stole stuff with a PRICE ~ TAG ~ of a quarter mil or so. At the same time he sold that stuff to a store for a third that price.
The actual out of pocket cost to the manufacturer was probably more on the lines of 10 to 25 cents per item, and he was taking 50 items per night. In effect, the direct or actual economic damage was more like $5.00 to $12.50 per day, but his own gain was about $150.00 per day because he had a FENCE.
The FENCE (that store) then gained about $300.00 per day (they bought it for 1/3, and sold it full price to the public).
There are several problems with this sort of thing ~ the laws really don't deal with it very well since the basic question is always "How Much Did It Cost" ~ and the judge knew this case wasn't in his court on account of its cost. Your typical value based case even taken to a federal court is ordinarily far more than 1/4 million ~ DOJ usually won't even handle one for less than that, but here's the judge, and here's the crook, and RESTITUTION would require the extended services of an accounting team that would cost the court more to hire than could ever be recovered. Fur Shur they're not going to pick up the cost out of the pocket of a former letter carrier who said he was stealing to pay debts.
The folks who "lost packages" (CDs, DVDs, lingerie) were undoubtedly reimbursed or "made whole" by the manufacturer/dealer/retailer since these guys who sell through mailorder are OBLIGATED BY LAW to do so within a certain timeframe (which is not controlled by USPS but by the Federal Trade Commission).
All in all this is an improbable case to be in a federal court, and there's so little advantage for any of the victims I'd be surprised that USPS didn't just serve as a witness for Netflix or someother CD/DVD peddler/renter in a local magistrate's court ~ UNLESS THERE WAS SOMETHING ELSE.
Remember the store? How many letter carriers do you imagine HE had contact with, or record store thieves? How many out of state racketeers dealing in stolen DVDs arranged for distribution of his surplus to OTHER STORES?
The federales handling this case know this guy is going to go to prison ~ as is the fellow or fellows at the store ~ and someone driving a truck is going with them ~ and there's folks down the line that must certainly have been busted in this multi-state gangland style supply chain!
BTW, that's why they just turned him loose pending sentencing ~ he's not going back to USPS, but maybe he had a slightly better connection with the mob than was apparent and that means there's more stuff to watch for, or could it be he's going to INSTANTLY disappear into the federal witness protection program and you'll never hear of him again.
Now that would be if he was a good witness for the prosecution.
Hence the apparent loose ends.
He could even end up as a body in a car off the side of a mountain too.
This went on for to long, I suspect more then one person was involved in this, this guy was probably the fall guy, I'll be keeping an eye out on the post master over him, the sheriff, and the judge. They were probably all related to each other or buddy buddy with each other. What ever it was this stinks to high heaven.
Last time we had a problem with Netflix they sent us a new copy. Didn't even think of referring the matter to the Postal Inspectors, or the local police.
This is not like a guy stopping by your house and pulling the new lawn furniture off your porch and selling it in the junkshop.
The actual out of pocket cost to the manufacturer was probably more on the lines of 10 to 25 cents per item, and he was taking 50 items per night. In effect, the direct or actual economic damage was more like $5.00 to $12.50 per day, but his own gain was about $150.00 per day because he had a FENCE.
The Inspection Service deals with crime. The Inspector General deals with internal fraud ~ hence their interest in what this particular postal employee was up to. We may never hear about the IS and FBI side of the equation. This is probably an ongoing investigation when it comes to the other folks involved (store, truck drivers, dealers, etc.).
Believe me I've had to testify several times over the years about the ACTUAL OUT OF POCKET COST of items stolen from USPS ~ and the federal judges involved were all very specific ~ what was the actual cost of producing or purchasing those items. They didn't want to know about real or imagined profits, or stocking costs, or managerial workhours, or replacement costs (which surprised me since replacement frequently involves the "next item cost" which can be dramatically different than any price you ever imagined), just what was paid at the time of original acquisition for the item(s) at question.
What the judges are looking for are "floors" so that they don't get all boloxed up handling nickel and dime cases when valuable court time could be devoted to folks like Bernie Madoff.
Since this case appears to have been "concocted" to achieve a certain dollar value amount I strongly suspect it's been done just to squeeze a small time thief into yielding up information in a far larger and more important case.
Just curious - I wonder what the penalty would be if you or I were to be convicted of 11,000 counts of mail fraud?
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