Trash bags of mail found outside Pennsylvania postal worker’s home

Trash bags full of undelivered mall were discovered at the curb outside the home of a postal employee in Pennsylvania.

Special agents with the U.S. Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General responded to a report about undelivered mail on Sunday and discovered trash bags full of undelivered mail placed near the street for pickup outside the employee’s home in Baldwin, a small suburb of Pittsburgh, according to CNN.

The agency said in a statement that the employee works at the post office in the small town of Mount Oliver. Their name was not released, but the worker is currently on a nonduty and nonpay status.

“USPS OIG Special Agents recovered several different classes of mail, including business mail, flats, and small amount of first class mail,” Special Agent Scott Balfour told CNN in a statement. “We expect to perform a piece count of the mail today, and make arrangements to have to mail delivered to customers as soon as feasible.”

Balfour said that the case will be presented for federal prosecution to the U.S. attorney’s office following an investigation.

The special agent told the network that there are more than 630,000 Postal Service employees and the majority are “hard-working, trustworthy individuals.”

“Incidents of this nature are exceedingly rare when put into that context,” he added.

This is the second incident of mail-dumping reported in recent weeks.

A Postal Service mail carrier in New Jersey was arrested last week for allegedly discarding mail, including 99 general election ballots.

Nicholas Beauchene was charged with one count of delay, secretion or detention of mail and one count of obstruction of mail. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the delay charge and up to six months in prison and a $6,000 fine for obstruction. 

The Postal Service has received a flood of additional mail in recent weeks as thousands of Americans cast their ballots through the mail during the coronavirus pandemic.

President Trump has for weeks made exaggerated and inaccurate claims about mail-in voting, saying that the election will be “rigged” and “fraudulent” if Americans vote through the mail. However, experts have insisted that there is no meaningful evidence suggesting mail-in voting contributes to voter fraud.

Updated at 8:12 a.m.