Postman Gets Three Years Probation for Stealing Cash From Cards

A Woonsocket man caught in a 2011 sting stealing cash from greeting cards he was supposed to deliver has pled guilty to the charge, receiving three years probation and an order to pay restitution.

Brett Beauchamp, 29, of Woonsocket, who has since resigned as a U.S. Postal Service carrier, was sentenced today to three years federal probation, fined $3,000 and ordered to pay restitution for the crime, according to US Attorney Peter F. Neronha and Rafael Medina, Special Agent in Charge of the Northeast Area Field Office of the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (USPS OIG). 

According to information the US Attorney's office supplied at court, officials were alerted to the thefts when customers complained of mail that had been tampered with and of missing mail along Beauchamp's route. 
On Nov. 8, 2011, agents from the USPS OIG performed a live test and surveillance of Beauchamp while he was delivering mail in Woonsocket, placing an alarm device and cash in a test card.

When they were alerted by a beeper indicating Beauchamp had opened a test greeting card, agents confronted Beauchamp. They retrieved 28 rifled greeting cards and letters from the rear of his Postal vehicle. They also recovered $100 in cash from Beauchamp, $65 of which the agents had placed in the test greeting card and an additional $35 Beauchamp admitted to having removed from other mail he opened that day. 

Beauchamp plad guilty on Oct. 16, 2013, to theft of mail by a Postal Service employee. He resigned his position as a Postal carrier prior to today’s sentencing hearing before U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell, Jr.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard W. Rose.