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Only trust official Treasury employees to steal your mail

September 16, 2009

Earlier this year the pilot program to collect some federal income taxes using private collection agencies was killed. That's because you can only trust federal employees to do this sort of work, as outlined in a Justice Department press release:

Latrice Antionette Murray, 38, of Kansas City, Mo., was charged in a five-count indictment that was returned under seal by a federal grand jury in Kansas City on Sept. 8, 2009. That indictment was unsealed and made public upon Murray's arrest this morning and initial court appearance.

Murray is employed at the IRS facility at 333 W. Pershing Road, Kansas City, Mo., where her duties include mail processing.

As a batch of incoming mail is sorted for delivery to various individuals at the Pershing Road facility, some mail is identified as misdirected or misdelivered mail and is placed in a mail bucket so it can be returned to the Postal Service for delivery to the intended addressee. Based on reports that misdelivered mail was being opened rather than being returned to the Postal Service, a hidden video surveillance camera was installed in the administrative mail room. According to the indictment, the video taken by the hidden surveillance camera confirmed that Murray rifled through the misdelivered mail, opened it, and took contents from the mail.

The federal indictment charges Murray with five counts of stealing mail between Feb. 9 and April 9, 2009.

Who knows what chaos would ensue if you let private contractors do your mail-stealing.