Former Baltimore postal worker pleads guilty in $700,000 mail theft scheme

A former Baltimore mail clerk admitted to stealing and cashing more than $700,000 in checks, a case that reaches far beyond one postal job and into the rent payments, utility bills and vendor checks that Baltimore residents and small businesses still trust the mail to carry.

Derrick Stewart, 34, of Baltimore pleaded guilty in federal court on May 20 to mail theft by a postal employee, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Prosecutors said Stewart worked as a clerk at a mail processing and distribution center in Baltimore and ran the scheme from September 2022 through December 2023. During that period, authorities said, he intercepted checks from the mail, fraudulently endorsed them in the victims’ names and deposited them into his own bank accounts.

Federal agents recovered almost 200 pieces of mail containing more than $700,000 when they executed a search warrant on Dec. 2, 2023. Prosecutors said surveillance video captured Stewart depositing stolen and fraudulently endorsed checks into his personal accounts, evidence that helped tie the missing mail to a wider fraud operation. Stewart now faces a mandatory consecutive two-year sentence for aggravated identity theft and a maximum of 27 years in prison. His sentencing date has not yet been set.

For Baltimore residents, the case is a blunt reminder that mail theft is not an abstract federal offense. A stolen check can disrupt a landlord’s cash flow, delay a nonprofit’s donations, or trigger overdraft fees and late notices for households that still mail payments. The damage can spread quickly when a check is altered, re-endorsed or deposited before the intended recipient even knows it is missing.

Federal officials have warned that the problem is growing. In January 2025, the FBI and U.S. Postal Service said mail-theft-related check fraud is on the rise nationwide, and suspicious activity reports tied to check fraud nearly doubled from 2021 to 2023. Baltimore has already seen signs of that pattern, including cases WMAR reported in May 2025 involving checks and money orders stolen or altered after being mailed from post offices in Windsor Mill, Glyndon, Arbutus, Arlington and on Fayette Street.

The city has seen similar cases before. In 2008, federal prosecutors alleged a Baltimore Postal Service employee stole Treasury checks from the Druid Station post office and passed them to co-conspirators who used false IDs to cash them. Taken together, the cases show how a single postal worker with access to the mail can compromise trust in one of the most basic systems Baltimore still depends on.