Postal clerk takes checks from Missouri mail, including $500 in birthday money, feds say

Soon after being hired as a mail processing clerk, a Missouri woman began stealing checks from the mail to deposit into her own bank account, according to federal authorities.

An investigation by the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General found that Porcia Denise Rhodes, of St. Louis, stole about 21 checks worth $5,035, authorities said.

Now, the 27-year-old woman has pleaded guilty to charges of bank fraud and theft of mail by a Postal Service employee, according to a Nov. 15 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri.

Her defense attorney declined to provide a comment to McClatchy News on Nov. 16.

Rhodes was hired by the Postal Service on July 3, 2022, according to her signed plea agreement. Authorities said she worked as a mail processing clerk at the Metro Annex and St. Louis Processing and Distribution Center in 2022.

While working, Rhodes took envelopes and letters that contained checks, according to the plea agreement. More than 10 people and businesses were affected by her theft, authorities said.

In one example, authorities said a grandmother in Troy, Illinois, mailed a birthday card with a $500 check to her grandson in Oviedo, Florida, around July 21, 2022.

Rhodes stole the check as she was processing mail in St. Louis, according to her plea agreement.

She cashed the stolen checks by scratching out the payee’s name and writing in her own name, authorities said.

Rhodes faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine for the bank fraud charge and up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the theft charge, according to the release. Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for Feb. 12.

This story was originally published November 16, 2023 at 11:05 AM with the headline "Postal clerk takes checks from Missouri mail, including $500 in birthday money, feds say."