$25,000 reward offered in mail robbery

Postal inspectors hope it will lead to arrests in the hijacking of a mail truck April 5.

By RICHARD DANIELSON, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 13, 2002

TARPON SPRINGS -- An unusual and unsolved mail truck heist has prompted postal inspectors to offer up to $25,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the robbers.

Postal officials offered the reward Friday, a week after the April 5 hijacking of a loaded semitrailer mail truck leaving the Tarpon Springs post office on Lime Street.

Postal inspector William Camp said the investigation is "still kind of wide open." Offering a reward is a standard step in such cases and doesn't necessarily indicate that the investigation has reached a dead end, he said.

The truck's driver, who works for a postal subcontractor, told authorities that he was driving on Lime Street toward U.S. 19 N shortly before 9 p.m. April 5 when a Spanish-speaking man with a gun took over the truck.

The hijacker forced the driver to go to a deserted First Union Bank at 3180 Tampa Road in Oldsmar, Along with an accomplice who joined him there, the robber tied up the driver, stole mail and abandoned the truck. The driver was not hurt.

The stolen mail included registered mail, according to authorities. Among other things, the missing parcels include three sets of cremated human remains that were being sent through the mail. Postal inspectors have released few other details about how much or what type of mail was taken. This week, however, the manager of a Pasco County funeral home that had mailed out one of the three sets of stolen human ashes said postal officials told him that the hijacker took only registered mail.

Federal law provides a maximum 10-year prison sentence for anyone who robs a mail truck or post office. In cases such as the Tarpon Springs hijacking, where a gun is used, the maximum sentence is 25 years in prison. The same law mandates a prison sentence of up to 10 years for anyone who receives stolen mail.

Perhaps as a result, it remains relatively rare for someone to try to hijack a mail truck.

"Most robbers are aware that if they try anything like this, they're not going to do it with federal vehicles," Camp said.

In a report to Congress late last year, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said the number of postal robberies nationwide dropped from 233 in 1997 to 89 in 2001. During fiscal year 2001, postal inspectors made 74 arrests for postal robberies and got 71 convictions.

Those robberies included holdups of post offices, mail carriers, postal trucks and "highway contract route" trucks belonging to private companies.

Of mail truck robberies, the postal inspectors' report to Congress said, "This type of robbery often depends on the 'inside' knowledge of a postal employee, who can provide important details to an accomplice on truck arrivals and departures."

Camp said he couldn't comment whether investigators think the Tarpon Springs robbery involved someone who knew about the truck, its contents or its schedule.

"With the reward poster out, we're delving into every possibility," he said. Investigators plan to distribute copies of the reward poster in English and Spanish near the Tarpon Springs post office. Anyone with information on the holdup is asked to call postal inspector Andrew Wagner at (813) 281-5200.

-- Richard Danielson can be reached at (727) 445-4194 or Danielson@sptimes.com.

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