LUBBOCK, Texas – A $75 Costco gift card reported missing by a Lubbock woman in January led to a postal worker admitting he had stolen mail every day he worked for roughly four months, according to court documents Wednesday.
Jeremy Dale Massingill pleaded guilty to Theft of Mail by a United States Postal Service Employee. He had been a postal worker since July 2020 and was stationed at the Monterey Post Office at 5014 Gary Avenue.
According to court documents, in January, a woman reported that mail addressed to her had not been delivered to her home. This included a Costco gift card for $75 that a family member had sent. When the woman contacted Costco in Lubbock, she was told someone with the last name “Massingill” used the gift card.
An agent with the U.S. Postal Service investigated the matter and received video footage that showed a woman, later identified as Massingill’s wife, using the gift card to buy meat and meat seasoning January 5.
Later, on February 26, the agent set up an “integrity test” that involved mailing a $20 Walmart gift card to a vacant address on Massingill’s route. The gift card wasn’t delivered to the vacant address and wasn’t returned to the post office either.
On April 10, the agent contacted Walmart and learned the gift card had a $0 balance. Walmart gave the agent still shots of the customer who used the gift card. The agent recognized the customer as Massingill’s wife, according to court documents.
The agent set up another integrity test April 28 that involved a $20 bill marked with the agent’s initials “RC” placed in a greeting card and addressed to another vacant lot on Massingill’s route. When the agent confronted him, he admitted to stealing mail starting around December 2020.
He told the agent he had been stealing mail every day he worked since then, including earlier that day. When the agent searched Massingill’s backpack, he found a $150 personal check and two gift cards totaling $50.
Massingill denied stealing cash that day, but when the agent asked Massingill to show him what was in his wallet, he found the $20 bill the agent marked with his initials. The agent also found two other gift cards Massingill had stolen sometime prior.
Later that day, Massingill contacted the agent and told him he wanted to turn over additional gift cards he had stolen from the mail. The gift cards he handed over totaled $390.
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