FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A judge delivered their punishment to a South Florida mail carrier after she admitted to stealing gift cards and cash, but the neighbors who once trusted her are not happy with her sentence, as Brian Entin found out in court.
Brian Entin: “Ms. Coleman, is there anything you want to say to the victims?”
Coleen Coleman stayed silent.
Brian Entin: “Are you sorry for what you did, Ms. Coleman?”
The disgraced USPS mail carrier walked out of federal court in Fort Lauderdale after her sentencing. She will not go to prison.
Instead, she was sentenced to five years probation and three months home confinement.
Mike McEntee, neighbor: “I think they were very lenient on her. I don’t think they gave her enough for what happened.”
Her victims appeared in court Thursday and hoped for a tougher sentence after Coleman admitted to stealing their mail.
Investigators said the once trusted Coral Springs mail carrier stole cash and gift cards from residents of the Carriage Pointe Estates neighborhood.
After reports of the theft, feds set her up and caught Coleman in the act.
James Durkis, neighbor: “I still think in these cases the victims don’t get enough and she got too little.”
Mail carriers betraying the public’s trust is a problem nationwide. Over a six month period, postal inspectors made 396 arrests for mail theft and other crimes involving postal employees and contractors.
In California, a mail carrier was busted for stealing diamonds valued at almost $90,000 and $5,000 in cash, and a Miami-Dade mail carrier was caught diverting illegal drugs for cash payments.
Brian Entin: “Has this impacted your trust in the postal system?”
Terry McEntee, neighbor: “Yes, it has.”
Because Coleman faced just one count — theft of mail by a U.S. Postal Service employee — and had no criminal history she avoided prison.
Terry McEntee, neighbor: “The judge, his hands were basically tied. He had to go by certain guidelines.”
On top of the home confinement and probation, Coleman also has to pay restitution to the victims and do community service.
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