A Brooklyn postal worker was busted for swiping more than 3,000 money orders and 30 prepaid debit cards used for unemployment benefits, according to a federal criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday.
The suspect, Jalessa Wallace, allegedly took the money orders from another USPS employee who was dropping them off at the Flatbush post office on Utica Avenue where she worked in February.
Wallace gave some of the money orders to an accomplice named Willie Cook, whom law enforcement tracked down and arrested last week, according to the complaint.
Cook then flipped on Wallace, telling investigators that he was holding the money orders for her — and told authorities she swiped them while she was working at the Flatbush post office.
Law enforcement authorities executed a search warrant at Wallace’s Brownsville home last week and recovered 3,189 of the stolen money orders and 37 prepaid debit cards used for unemployment benefits that were not in her name, according to the complaint.
Investigators also recovered more than $42,000 in cash that was stashed in a black box in the apartment, the complaint states.
The money orders could be exchanged for up $1,000, the feds said, and financial institutions had already reported more than 100 of the stolen orders being deposited by the time Wallace was charged.
Attorney information for the postal worker was not immediately available.