Former Postal Service carrier pleads guilty to tossing 20,000 pieces of mail

Neither rain nor sleet nor five to eight beers a day could keep this postal carrier from his appointed rounds.

But he helped himself on those rounds by throwing away thousands of pieces of mail instead of delivering it.

On Monday, the former mail carrier pleaded guilty to a federal charge of stealing U.S. mail.

David Thompson, 54, of Warrensburg, Mo., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Kansas City. He faces up to five years in federal prison.

Prosecutors said that Thompson, who began his postal career in 1990, threw away an estimated 20,000 pieces of mail from May 2012 to January 2014.

Postal officials discovered the thefts after placing a hidden camera in the vehicle Thompson used on his Warrensburg route. They were investigating reports that he was drinking on the job, according to the indictment filed by prosecutors.

During the investigation, the camera captured him drinking five to eight beers a day. He kept the beers in his mailbag, according to the documents.

But the camera also caught Thompson throwing mail away instead of delivering it.

Investigators later found mail that was supposed to be delivered on Thompson’s route in a trash container behind the Elks Lodge in Warrensburg where he held a leadership position, according to prosecutors.

This story was originally published June 1, 2015 at 10:15 AM with the headline "Former Postal Service carrier pleads guilty to tossing 20,000 pieces of mail."