You've Got Mail: Letter Carrier Pleads Guilty to Stealing
Ever mail something to a friend or family member, like some birthday cash, or perhaps a kidney, only to have it go missing? Things like that kept happening along the route of Houston letter carrier Johnnie Harden Jr. (except substitute "$50 Target gift card" for "kidney"), who has pleaded guilty to mail theft in federal court. 
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Spurred by a complaint of missing mail last April, federal agents surveilled the 46-year-old Harden who'd been with the USPS since 1990, and he was arrested after the agents saw him "opening another mail piece and removing the contents, two $50 bills). When agents searched Harden's car, they found "gift cards, magazines and a small parcel." Moreover, Harden "was also identified from a still photo generated from [a] Target surveillance video redeeming the Target gift card."
Harden was sentenced to a one-year probation and ordered to pay $50 in restitution. Most hurtful, we're sure, is the fact that he's now banned from ever working again for the postal service.
Hair Balls can understand stealing cash and a gift card, but magazines? Did they involve naked women? Naked dudes? Naked furniture? The possibilities are endless. Unfortunately, we weren't able to reach Harden to find out exactly which publications were pilfered. And we haven't heard back from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas, who mysteriously omitted this detail from its press release. But we'll be sure to stay on top of this.
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