Maryland Postmaster Gets 9 Months in Prison for Stealing Nearly $60,000 In Stamps

GREENBELT, Md. (December 6, 2010)—U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus sentenced Gilbert Ennis, age 56, of Lanham, Maryland, today to nine months in prison followed by three years of supervised release, the first six months of which is to be served in home detention with electronic monitoring, for stealing $59,958.21 in postal stamps from the Marbury Post Office in Charles County where he was the postmaster. Judge Titus also ordered Ennis to pay a fine of $3,000, and entered an order of restitution of $59,958.21 to be paid from Ennis’ federal retirement account. Ennis has resigned from the U.S. Postal Service.

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein, Special Agent in Charge Joanne Yarbrough of the U.S. Postal Service, Office of Inspector General and Charles County Sheriff Rex Coffey.

According to Ennis’ plea agreement, on November 23, 2009, Ennis called the Charles County Sheriff’s Office and reported that he had been alone in the postal office that afternoon when a man carrying a gun entered the building, demanded that he open the safe and then ordered Ennis to get into the bathroom and close the door. Ennis told the sheriff and the postal inspector that a green box in the safe containing over $50,000 in postal stamp stock was stolen. A postal audit concluded that the amount of stamp stock stolen from the safe was $57,989.40.

Investigators began to doubt Ennis’ robbery report, however, when they found a green box identical to the one reported stolen in Ennis’ car. Further investigation revealed that Ennis could not have seen the robbers leaving the parking lot, as he reported, from the bathroom where he said he was; and the door Ennis said the robber entered from was deadbolted and could not be opened from the outside without a key. Investigators also found Postal Service money orders in the box in Ennis’ car; confirmed that $50,000 of stamp stock could not have fit inside the box that Ennis claimed was stolen; and determined that $1,968.81 in stamps were missing from Ennis’ drawer.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the U.S. Postal Service, Office of Inspector General and the Charles County Sheriff’s Office for their assistance in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorney Hollis Raphael Weisman, who prosecuted the case.

Source: Office of United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein, Maryland District

4 thoughts on “Maryland Postmaster Gets 9 Months in Prison for Stealing Nearly $60,000 In Stamps

  1. This is going on all over the nation. The postmaster job is use less it only brings down the postal service. Too much time on your hands doing nothing is why this happens.

  2. Supervisors are so use to lying all the time to employees with no accountability. He forgot he wasn’t talking to his employees. Welcome to the real world Ennis or should I say Anus! Hope Bubba has fun with him!!!

  3. JUST GOES TO SHOW how smart management is doesn’t it? He must have thought this up for about 3 seconds before he called the cops…stupid is as stupid does. LOL

  4. The vast majority of USPS workers are honest. These kind of stories are of course the ones to hit the news outlets. The good things that PO employees do are seldom mentioned. Like drives for food and clothing to help out the less fortunate. Our office has a program where individual employees buy gifts for seniors for Christmas, plus donate items for homeless shelters and food to food shelters. These programs have gone on for YEARS. But bad news sells a lot more than good. I guess that is the answer.

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