Ex-postal worker in Baltimore caught with $700K in stolen checks — and a plan to sell them

Derrick Stewart knew his way around the post office.

Court records show he started working for the U.S. Postal Service in his early 20s. By his early 30s, he was a processing clerk at a distribution center near downtown Baltimore.

The job gave him access to thousands of pieces of mail each day — along with a secondary source of income.

Starting in September 2022, Stewart would pick out certain pieces of mail, slip into a freight elevator and stuff them where they couldn’t be seen, according to a plea agreement he signed this month.

Then he walked out of the distribution center as if it was any normal workday. A video camera at an ATM would later record him depositing checks ranging from $840 to more than $3,000.

Stewart netted more than $10,000. But federal authorities say, when they executed a search warrant in December 2023, they found evidence of a much larger scheme.

Stewart was in possession of nearly 200 checks, totaling more than $700,000, plus $4,100 in cash, according to his plea agreement. On his phone were text messages detailing the sale of checks and instructions on how to illegally endorse checks.

Stewart, 34, no longer works for the postal service. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud, identity theft and mail theft by a postal employee “to enrich himself and others.” He has yet to be sentenced.

A news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Maryland said Stewart faces up to 27 years in prison. The release said the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General and the Internal Revenue Service investigated the case.