Former Glastonbury Postal Worker Sentenced In Federal Investigation Into Intercepted Treasury Checks

GLASTONBURY, CT — About six months after admitting to stealing a U.S. Treasury check from the mail, a former postal service carrier who had a route in Glastonbury has been sentenced.

On Monday in Hartford, federal judge Alvin W. Thompson sentenced 31-year-old Ernesto Rodriguez Jr. to one year of probation, fined him $500 and ordered him to perform 50 hours of community service. Rodriguez must also pay back the full amount of the stolen check — $4,943.17.

In June, Rodriguez waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty Tuesday in Hartford federal court to a charge related to his theft of a U.S. Treasury check from the mail while working for the U.S. Postal Service. He had left Connecticut and was residing in Tampa, FL, at the time.

According to court documents, in 2021, Rodriguez, while employed by the U.S. Postal Service as a mail carrier in Glastonbury, was asked by an acquaintance to intercept federal tax refund checks that would be mailed to addresses on his mail carrier route.

After taking the checks, he would deliver them to an unknown individual in New York and be paid approximately $100 for each check, according to case records. Rodriguez gave his acquaintance information about his route so that refund checks could be sent to those addresses, and was subsequently provided with approximately 10 names and addresses for checks he was supposed to take from the mail, case records state.

In October 2021, Rodriguez stole a U.S. Treasury tax refund check in the amount of $4,943.17 from the mail before it was delivered to an address on his route, according to case records. On Oct. 23, 2021, he deposited the check into his wife's bank account and, two days later, he transferred $4,500 from his wife’s account to his own bank account, and subsequently spent the money for personal use, according to case records.

Rodriguez resigned from the U.S. Postal Service on October 23, 2021. He told law enforcement that he only stole one check as part of the scheme, Sullivan said.

Rodriguez seems to have escaped sentencing lightly after pleading guilty to theft of public money, an offense that carries a maximum prison term of 10 years.