EXCLUSIVE: HHI Post Office worker arrested last fall for mail theft. Was she the only one?
Hilton Head Island residents served by the north-end Post Office have been raising concerns for nearly two years about mail theft and a lack of transparency from the brass at the United States Postal Service. A recent press release provided a small window into what many believe is a larger problem within the facility at 213 William Hilton Parkway.
Thylenthia Tobet Young, 44, a former mail carrier on Hilton Head, is awaiting trial after her arrest last year for alleged mail theft at the Fairfield Station Post Office, according to a note sent Friday from Assistant Special Agent in Charge Charlene Cerra, a spokesperson for the Office of Inspector General.
Young, a Savannah resident, was indicted Sept. 12 on three federal charges of mail theft, each a felony punishable by a $2,000 fine or five years in prison. She was a rural carrier, meaning she sorted mail inside the office before departing on a delivery route across the island.
Charging documents accuse Young of embezzling three pieces of mail — once in April and twice on May 30 — but do not specify what type of items were stolen or their total value. The employee resigned from the U.S Postal Service on May 30, according to Cerra.
News of the arrest answers some questions for Hilton Head residents, who have reported thousands of dollars worth of missing or stolen mail dating back to 2022. Islanders have also criticized the service’s local disorganization, citing slow routes and misplaced deliveries. The reasons for the U.S. Postal Service’s delay in revealing Young’s May 2023 resignation or September indictment remain unclear.
But widespread reports of apparent theft have continued into 2024, suggesting the problem runs far deeper than one aberrant employee. Cerra would not comment on possible further theft at the north-end Post Office, but asked potential victims to file a complaint at https://www.uspsoig.gov/hotline.
According to public records obtained by the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette through the PACER court reporting system, Young pleaded not guilty to the three charges and was released from jail on a personal recognizance bond in late September. A pre-trial conference is scheduled for Feb. 21 and the criminal trial was postponed to the March session in Charleston’s federal courthouse to allow more time for plea negotiations.
While court documents do not include details of the alleged crimes, emails obtained last summer from an official at the Office of Inspector General indicate the employee stole at least one $100 Mastercard gift card and allegedly “threw away all checks” she stole from the mail.
After being contacted Monday morning, the defense attorney representing Young requested additional time to respond to questions.
According to a statement sent Friday from Cerra, mail theft is a “rare occurence” for the 625,000-plus employees of USPS. “It is important for the public we serve to know the overwhelming majority of Postal Service employees are honest, hardworking, and trustworthy individuals who would never consider engaging in this type of criminal behavior.”
This story was originally published February 5, 2024 at 12:56 PM.
