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NEW YORK — Call it a special delivery. A postal carrier pocketed dozens of greeting cards he was supposed to deliver to get at the cash inside, postal inspectors said.
He was found with more than 130 pieces of other people's mail in his car, according to a court complaint.
Michael Olivio was released on his own recognizance Thursday following his arrest the previous day, court records show. The exact charges against him were not listed in court records available early Saturday, and a spokesman for prosecutors did not immediately return a telephone call.
Olivio said he was "not allowed to talk," and his lawyer, Michelle Gelernt, declined to comment.
Postal authorities started getting complaints in June about greeting cards getting lost en route to residents of a Brooklyn ZIP code, U.S. Postal Inspection Service Special Agent Stephen Dolloff said in papers filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.
He set up stings involving decoy cards in September and again this week. The latest one included cash — and a hidden electronic transmitter. The transmitter showed that Olivio kept the card after finishing his mail route Wednesday, Dolloff said.
Agents stopped Olivio and found their decoy in his car, along with about 137 other cards and other letters, Dolloff said in a sworn statement. He said Olivio later told agents he had been filching greeting cards from his mail bag since February, recently taking as many about 35 per day.
It wasn't clear how much cash Olivio is accused of taking.
