Postal carrier dumps 1,000 pieces of mail, including a ballot, in Florida woods, feds say

A mail carrier finished his route suspiciously early one day, then 1,000 pieces of discarded mail were found in the woods in Florida, federal authorities said.

Ottis McCoy Jr. is charged with stealing, taking or abstracting mail, according to a criminal complaint filed Oct. 25 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

McClatchy News reached out to McCoy’s attorney for comment Oct. 28 and did not immediately receive a response.

McCoy was hired in August through a contract delivery company as a part-time U.S. Postal Service contract employee to deliver mail on a route in Orlando, according to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

On Oct. 22, one of McCoy’s managers who helped him load his delivery van in the morning noticed McCoy had “finished his route earlier than expected” given the volume of mail, investigators said.

He said he suspected McCoy had gotten rid of the mail.

McCoy’s boss, the owner of the contract delivery service, checked the GPS on the delivery van and saw that McCoy had made a detour on his route, according to investigators. The manager then visited the location and found dumped mail in a wooded lot, federal officials said.

Postal inspectors said they retrieved over 1,000 pieces of mail, including a ballot and 400 pieces of “political mail.”

A nearby homeowner gave investigators a copy of surveillance video that appears to show McCoy going to the wooded lot at the end of a cul-de-sac in his van and throwing away “large quantities” of mail, investigators said.

Photos taken at the scene and included in the criminal complaint show piles of mail on the ground and scattered in the brush.

News of the postal worker accused of dumping mail comes only days after the Orange County Supervisor of Elections shared that voters’ ballots were discarded on the ground in the Orlando area. A stolen USPS key was used to access mailboxes containing ballots that a thief later dumped, McClatchy News reported.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service told McClatchy News it can’t comment on ongoing investigations.

“The Inspection Service continues to employ its technical capabilities and specialized personnel to protect the critical infrastructure of our processing and distribution networks, as well as the employees who will be delivering to voters across the country,” the agency said in a statement.

The USPS Office of Inspector General told McClatchy News that the agency employs more than 625,000 people, “and the overwhelming majority of Postal Service employees, who all serve the public, are honest, hardworking and trustworthy individuals who would never consider engaging in any type of criminal behavior.”

Anyone who suspects mail theft can report it to the Office of Inspector General’s hotline.

This story was originally published October 28, 2024 at 11:59 AM with the headline "Postal carrier dumps 1,000 pieces of mail, including a ballot, in Florida woods, feds say."