Rego Park Mail Thief Sentenced To 3 Years In Prison: Queens DA

REGO PARK, QUEENS — A judge handed a Long Island man a three-year prison sentence for stealing mail after police busted him fishing for envelopes in a Rego Park mailbox, Queens prosecutors said Tuesday.

Police officers were monitoring a live video surveillance feed the morning of Nov. 8, 2018 when they spotted Travis (Lamont) Everett using a sticky rat trap attached to a string to fish envelopes out of a mailbox at 108th Street and 63rd Drive, according to a press release from the Queens district attorney's office.

Everett, 26, insisted he had dropped his keys in the mailbox. Then police officers searching his car found four pieces of mail on the floor and more than $300,000 worth of checks in his glove compartment and trunk, prosecutors said.

Everett, a resident of Brentwood on Long Island, pleaded guilty in October to criminal possession of stolen property.

A month later, in Manhattan, he pleaded guilty to identity theft and forgery charges for depositing stolen, forged checks and withdrawing the funds in six separate instances in 2016.

"A theft from the blue collection box is a theft from customers who place significant trust in the rich history and tradition of the Postal Service," Inspector in Charge of the New York Division of the U.S. Postal Service Philip R. Bartlett said in a statement. "If you steal mail you’re going to jail."

On Tuesday, Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice Barry S. Kron sentenced him to one to three years in prison. His sentencing for the Manhattan charges is Jan. 8, 2020.

He will serve both sentences at the same time, according to Queens prosecutors.