Gloucester County Postal Employee Admits Mail Theft

CAMDEN, N.J. – A Gloucester County, New Jersey, man who worked as a postal employee admitted today stealing more than $170,000 in cash that had been sent through the mail, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.

Joseph Fenuto, 51, of Blackwood, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Christine P. O’Hearn in Camden federal court to an information charging him withone count of mail theft. 

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

From November 2021 to August 2022, Fenuto was employed as a U.S. Postal Service letter carrier with delivery routes in Blackwood. Fenuto was assigned to a postal route which included the Gloucester Premium Outlets in Blackwood. Fenuto accepted parcels from numerous retail establishments, which he was required to place in the mail stream for delivery to the addresses listed on the parcels. Many of these parcels contained cash, which the retail stores had received from sales of their products and goods to customers. 

Fenuto admitted he had stolen more than 50 such parcels containing cash from numerous retail stores at the Gloucester Premium Outlets. Fenuto said he stole $171,110 from parcels that he was required to ensure remained in the mail stream for their delivery to a bank in Ohio. 

The mail theft charge is punishable by a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a maximum $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for April 2, 2024.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents with the U.S. Postal Service, Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Matthew Modafferi, Northeast Area Field Office, and investigators of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Thomas Mahoney, with the investigation leading to the guilty plea. He also thanked the Gloucester Township Police Department under the direction of Chief David J. Harkins for their assistance.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark J. McCarren of the Office’s Special Prosecutions Division in Newark.