An employee at the Untied States Postal Service (USPS) pleaded guilty to stealing more than $300,000 in checks and other items such as gold and collectible currency from mail, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Joivian Tjuana Hayes, 36, of Compton, who was a supervisor at the Costa Mesa Post Office in California, pleaded guilty on Friday, the DOJ said in a Feb. 7 statement.
According to the plea agreement, while Hayes was on duty with the USPS between early last year and December 2024, she stole “checks that had been mailed, which she then deposited into her own bank accounts by forging the payees listed on the checks.”
Hayes stole at least 20 checks totaling roughly $284,000, and deposited them in her accounts at various banks. Besides this, she stole $3,000 in postal money orders. The DOJ said Hayes wore a blue T-shirt bearing a USPS logo during some of the ATM deposits.