Postal worker pleads guilty to swiping Christmas cards with gift cards inside

A former postal carrier admitted in federal court she stole Christmas cards mailed by someone on her Hillsboro Beach route and used the Walmart gift cards inside.

In pleading guilty to one count of theft of mail by a postal employee, 24-year-old Miami Gardens resident Charlene Joseph also said she stole and sold five credit cards. But it was the gift cards theft that robbed several people of Christmas presents and of which prosecutors possessed video evidence.

The four envelopes with Christmas cards and gift cards were mailed from the Port De Mer condominium building in Hillsboro Beach on Dec. 15, 2015, with an intended destination of Ocean City, New Jersey, what appears to be the family of the sender’s daughter. Instead, the gift cards wound up in Miramar, where store surveillance cameras spotted Joseph using three of the four gift cards in the Walmart at 1800 S. University Dr. the next day.

Joseph will be sentenced Sept. 26. She faces a maximum of five years in federal prison.

This story was originally published July 23, 2017 at 2:26 PM with the headline "Postal worker pleads guilty to swiping Christmas cards with gift cards inside."