Evergreen Reporter

A former U.S. Postal Service mail carrier was sentenced to 14 months in prison for stealing and failing to deliver customers' mail. U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp also ordered Robert Gafford, 34, to pay a $5,000 fine.

Gafford, from Jackson, Missouri, was convicted by a jury in February on one count of delaying or destroying mail and one count of embezzlement of mail.

Employed at the Cape Girardeau Post Office annex, Gafford was responsible for delivering mail on a rural route near Scott City, Missouri. In late 2021, complaints arose from a couple on his route who reported missing mail and packages. They used Informed Delivery, a Postal Service program that provides images of incoming mail, to show postal officials their undelivered items.

When confronted by supervisors about the missing deliveries, Gafford cited his dislike for the location of the victims' mailbox and received a written warning.

The couple then mailed an Apple AirTag tracking device to themselves and traced it to Gafford's home after it wasn't delivered. A special agent with the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General sent a test piece of mail with another tracking device. Investigators observed Gafford stopping at his personal vehicle before leaving post office property in his mail vehicle that day. They tracked the test piece to Gafford's personal vehicle after he left for the day and subsequently seized it along with other undelivered mail from his SUV's glove box.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Hahn wrote in a sentencing memo that despite "extraordinary efforts" by postal officials to get Gafford to perform his duties, he continued refusing delivery and eventually stole the victims' mail over several months.

After the jury's verdict in early 2024, further complaints emerged about missing mail from residents on Dalhousie Drive in Cape Girardeau. The postmaster placed an AirTag in a package which later disappeared and was traced to Gafford’s home. A court-approved search revealed the package along with two Arrow keys used for unlocking various postal service boxes.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Paul Hahn and Christopher Shelton.