U.S. Postal Service Letter Carrier Tosses Back Beer, Throws Out 20,000 Pieces of Mail

KANSAS CITY, Mo.—Perhaps a Missouri mail carrier should have suggested that his union negotiate the right to toss back a beer or six in its latest contract talks with the U.S. Postal Service.  David Thompson went rogue and did it, anyway, and now the letter carrier is a former USPS employee and faces some hard time in the pokey for his deeds.

Thompson, 54, pleaded guilty to a federal charge of stealing mail, according to the Kansas City Star. Thompson didn't steal the mail per se, but perhaps there wasn't room in his mailbag for both the mail and the five to eight beers he was consuming daily. An investigation revealed Thompson was keeping the beer in his bags and throwing the mail away in a trash container behind a local Elks Lodge.

USPS officials used a hidden camera in the vehicle driven by Thompson—who'd been suspected of boozing on the job—to uncover the truth regarding the alcohol and discarded mail.

Thompson, who joined the USPS in 1990, tossed an estimated 20,000 pieces of mail between May 2012 and January 2014. He now faces up to five years in federal prison, the newspaper said.