Convicted Of Stealing Stamps

From my back yard ... whenever I went into this post office during this time, clerks never seemed to have any of the latest stamps ... selection was very limited. Poor story does not explain what the guy did with all those stamps ... (poor reporting!)


Syracuse-area post office manager stole $81K in stamps, feds say

December 3, 2025 (From Fingerlakes1.com)

A stamp theft scheme at a Syracuse-area post office landed a longtime station manager behind bars.

Emilio Chirico, 57, admitted to stealing more than $81,000 in stamps while managing the DeWitt Post Office. A federal judge sentenced him to six months in prison and two years of supervised release. He must also repay the stolen amount and pay a $5,500 fine.

Investigators say Chirico took the stamps between January 2021 and March 2023, then falsified records to hide the theft. He had worked at the DeWitt station since 2012.

Acting U.S. Attorney John Sarcone said the case shows no one is above the law — even longtime public employees. "Mr. Chirico chose instead to abuse that trust for his own personal gain," Sarcone said in the press release.

The U.S. Postal Service's Office of Inspector General led the investigation, working alongside federal prosecutors in Syracuse. USPS-OIG Special Agent Matthew Modafferi said the outcome reflects the agency's commitment to rooting out fraud from within.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tamara B. Thomson, Michael F. Perry, and Melissa O. Rothbart.

Obviously, he turned the stamps into cash whether it be selling them online or to businesses.

I am currently dealing with an issue here in Western MA wherein our First-Class mail that is from insurance companies or banks is not being delivered. Anything else shows up. It is disappearing between the time it is imaged for Informed Delivery and when it should be at my local PO. A check has gone missing. I do NOT trust the Post Office anymore. Very sad.

6 months in prison...hmmm

Well it seems the person did not get much time. You can be convicted for littering in a national park and get more time. I think $81,000 is a lot of money and the punishment should have been much sever.

First time offenders really seldom get much prison time outside of serious crimes against others. Good luck getting 84 grand out of this guy who probably was supporting some type of addiction.

Addicted to luxury cruises and fast cars.

As I noted earlier, I had a hard time getting stamps at this facility - and it is a major post office with a lot of customer ... A story from Syracuse.com (formerly Syracuse newspapers) noted:

As part of the plea agreement, Chirico admitted he had stolen the stamps between January 2021 and March 2023 from a safe in the post office. He was the only employee with the combination to the safe.

Chirico attempted to cover his tracks by falsifying inventory forms, according to the plea agreement.

The scheme was uncovered after postal clerks kept running out of stamps to sell and asked other post offices to send them inventory.

An unannounced audit in March 2023 showed the post office's safe had just $1,300 in stamps inside, a shortage of $81,553.94 in stamps.

We used to say something was a "federal crime" to indicate it was very, very serious, but punishments like these suggest we were wrong.

I assume he sold the stamps he stole at bargain prices to someone or other. I'm not sure, though, that the lack of availability of some stamps was necessarily tied to his stealing stamps. He would have had to walk off with nearly all of certain stamp issue to have that kind of impact -- and that's a lot of lifting and carrying! Maybe he did, but I wonder since stealing nearly all of a certain stamp would have raised a lot more suspicion than taking just "some" would have. If he did loot all, or most, of certain stamp issues which would certainly raise quick suspicion, he was fairly stupid man. If you want to steal from a bank, don't steal only all the hundred dollar bills you are in charge of.

Two things here .

First, he was not selling $81,000 of stamps to someone who is using them as postage to pay the monthly bills .It had to be going to a business or it disappeared to a stamp auction firm .He may of gotten 10 cents on the dollar if he sold them to a reseller .Stupid if now he has to pay 81K for his 8K profit .
Second is even worst ,he could lose his Postal Pension because he was a supervisor with a good long term job , if he loses that he is real stupid ,that is worth a lot more than 81K.

I would counter that I think he did steal many of the same stamps because the choices when I went there were very slim. I would ask for the newest stamps within a week of release and was often told, "oh, we didn't get any ..." .. or, "we had two sheets but I sold them ..."

I am just disappointed in our local news reporters who were lazy and inept for not asking, "what happened to the stamps?"

He just sent a H*LL of a lot of Christmas cards!

In Wayne, NJ, a few years back, a postal employee stole the identity of one of her USPS co-workers. Apparently, she applied for mortgages and things in the victim's name and then intercepted the mail before it got to that person. She was caught when she took a vacation and the victim started getting bills and notices out of the blue!

There was also a small local stamp show held in Fair Lawn, NJ, for a few years where one of the dealers was jailed for using their business as a money laundering outlet (I was told anecdotally that it was for the Russian mob, but who knows). I used to shop with the dealer all the time because he would just throw albums and stock books out on his table and sell every stamp at 10c a piece. He would say "If it's worth more than ten cents, you got a bargain, if it's worth less than ten cents, I'm ripping you off".

I miss that guy.