Postal worker steals over $40,000 in sports collectibles from packages in NJ, feds say
A postal worker in New Jersey stole packages addressed to a sports memorabilia auction house and sold off the collectibles, according to court documents.
According to documents filed in September, Shelby Dozier, a Bronx, New York, resident and former postal worker, pleaded guilty to stealing sports cards, jerseys and Pokemon cards from the Clifton, New Jersey, post office where he worked and selling them to stores and private collectors in 2022.
Dozier agreed to pay $108,692.49 in restitution as part of his plea agreement, according to a Jan. 28 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office District on New Jersey.
Between September 2022 and December 2022, the former postal worker pleaded guilty to stealing at least 10 packages of sports cards and memorabilia collectively valued at more than $40,000, according to a criminal complaint filed in the United States District Court District of New Jersey.
An attorney representing Dozier didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ requests for comment on Jan. 29.
In court documents, Troy Pittenger, a Postal Inspector with the United States Postal Inspection Service, said Dozier was hired in August 2022 and worked alongside four to eight other clerks until he abruptly stopped showing up for work that December.
According to Pittenger, Dozier, 34, learned from another employee that some packages were addressed to a consignment auction house in Clifton that specializes in sports memorabilia. Packages bound to that address would pass through Dozier’s post office for scanning before being shipped to the auction house’s PO box at another Clifton post office.
“In addition, when Shelby worked as a sorting clerk at Clifton Main, multiple USPS employees observed several opened and empty parcels destined for the post office box of [the auction house] in the men’s locker room,” Pittenger said.
Investigators tracked phone calls from Dozier’s number to buyers who purchased the stolen memorabilia and cards, including stores in the Bronx and Brooklyn, as well as individuals.
Multiple Michael Jordan cards valued at $2,000 each and a Mickey Mantle card stolen by Dozier were later sold by a Bronx sports collectibles store for “a fraction of their value.”
Another victim had 29 cards stolen in November. One of the cards featuring NBA player RJ Barrett was traced to an individual who sold it after buying it and several other cards from Dozier, who called himself “Steve.”
The unwitting buyer showed investigators over 40 photos that “Steve” sent, all of other victims’ stolen collectibles. They included multiple graded Jordan cards, a graded Shaquille O’Neal card, a jersey autographed by former NBA player Reggie Miller along with nine other signed jerseys, and one Pokemon card. DOJ records didn’t say which Pokemon card it was.
One of the stolen cards, featuring NHL player Connor McDavid, made it to its original destination after a sports collectible store in Brooklyn purchased it from Dozier and sent it to the auction house on consignment.
Dozier, who is scheduled to be sentenced April 22, faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, officials said.
This story was originally published January 29, 2025 at 2:00 AM with the headline "Postal worker steals over $40,000 in sports collectibles from packages in NJ, feds say."
