Metro-east mail carrier sentenced in scheme to steal credit cards to pay $27K in expenses

When U.S. Postal Service inspectors interviewed a Granite City mail carrier as part of a theft investigation, she apparently gave them the mail she had stolen while on the job.

But three days after that interview in March 2023, she used a stolen credit card to buy a washer and dryer set for about $3,400, according to federal court records.

Lakeatra E. White’s scheme to steal credit cards from the mail for her personal expenses ended this week with the postal carrier receiving a 32-month federal prison sentence handed down by U.S. District Judge Staci M. Yandle in the southern Illinois federal courthouse in Benton, court records show.

White, 32, of Granite City had pleaded guilty in September to one count of theft of mail by postal employee, one count of access device fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in a news release Friday.

“While employed as a city carrier assistant at the Granite City Post Office, White stole several mail items from customers on her route containing gift cards, credit cards and credit card information,” the news release said.

She stole credit cards from multiple victims and tried “to rack up personal charges estimated at nearly $27,000. During the investigation, White turned over 115 pieces of mail she had stolen to law enforcement.”

Assistant Federal Public Defender Ethan Skaggs, who represented White, could not be reached for comment Friday.

Yandle also ordered White to serve three years of supervised release and to pay $15,209.11 in restitution.

“Mail carriers are entrusted public servants, and postal workers who steal from their customers choose to break that trust,” U.S. Attorney Rachelle Aud Crowe said in the news release. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office will continue to partner with the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General to hold employees committing fraud accountable.”

The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General led the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Reed prosecuted the case.

“The majority of postal employees are hard-working public servants dedicated to moving mail to its proper destination,” said Special Agent in Charge Dennus Bishop of the Central Area Field Office of the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General in a statement. He noted that his office and law enforcement officers “remain committed to safeguarding the U.S. Mail.”

In September, Phillip E. Tucker, 37, of Madison, pleaded guilty in federal court in East St. Louis to one count of theft of mail by a postal employee for stealing a $200 Visa gift card from a mailbox in Granite City and using the gift card for personal purchases in 2023.