Pennsylvania postal worker accused of stealing 2,200 GameFly rentals

One of the downsides of using a mail rental service for games, movies, etc. is the number of middlepeople involved.

Between the shipping facility, the post office and the mail carrier there are a number of places a game can get damaged, lost or outright stolen. That’s what former Postal Service officer Reginald Johnson admitted to doing 2,200 times in federal district court Thursday October 15, 2009.

The former mail processing clerk allegedly stole $86,000 worth of stuff and, according to police reports, Johnson’s scams didn’t stop there. Police claim he was trading the games to GameStop and buying game consoles with the store credit. GameFly reported the large number of missing discs to the Postal Service, who caught Johnson in a surveillance sting.

Then came a scene straight out of a true crime genre game as Johnson fled in his SUV before having a wreck and getting caught with enough games and equipment to start his own store. Agents found 81 GameFly mailings in a duffel bag (that Johnson fled the scene with) and 79 more inside his vehicle. Also inside the SUV were five Wii Sports, three Wii Fits, a PlayStation console (the Philadelphia Daily News does not specify which Sony console) and a plethora of GameStop receipts.

Sadly, this is far from the only case like this.

In August 2009, we reported on a Florida UPS driver and his wife who are accused of stealing a quarter of a million in packages. Their stash included game consoles, weapons and a Cobra GPS with Bluetooth. And a former Massachusetts postal worker pilfered 3,200 Netflix DVDs, or $36,000 worth of merchandise.

Read [Philadelphia Daily News] Also Read [Gizmodo]