Mail worker stole 40 checks from route in $22K scheme in Louisiana, feds say
A woman working as a postal service contractor is accused in a $22,700 wire fraud and mail theft scheme in Louisiana, federal prosecutors said.
Rachel Watts Sanders, 40, from Loranger, took more than 40 checks from the mail while working as a highway contract route contractor, according to prosecutors and a court document. She then forged endorsements and put the checks in her account, prosecutors said.
Sanders pleaded guilty in connection with mail theft and wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana said in a May 9 news release.
McClatchy News reached out to Sanders’ attorney May 12 and was awaiting a response.
According to the postal service, highway contract routes “are traveled by postal contractors who carry mail in bulk.” They “make up the largest single group of transportation services used by USPS and range from long-haul tractor trailers to box delivery routes,” the agency said.
Sanders was interviewed by investigators in 2023, after a customer reported two missing checks and a financial institution raised concern about mobile deposits on an account Sanders co-owned, a court filing said.
Sanders said she took “checks and other mail items” and put them in her account via mobile deposit, according to the court filing, which said “a search of (her) vehicle revealed” hundreds pieces of delayed mail, and some “undelivered, rifled mail.”
Sanders faces up to five years behind bars in connection with mail theft and up to 20 years in connection with wire fraud, plus supervised release, fines and fees, according to prosecutors, who didn’t announce a sentencing date.
Loranger is about a 70-mile drive northwest from New Orleans.
This story was originally published May 12, 2025 at 4:26 PM with the headline "Mail worker stole 40 checks from route in $22K scheme in Louisiana, feds say."
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