Former Harvard mail carrier Stephanie Lacroix pleaded guilty to a single felony count of mail theft by a postal employee in Worcester U.S. District Court earlier this week, according to a report in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
Lacroix, who delivered mail in Harvard from 2016 to 2018, is accused of stealing $37,000 in credit and gift cards from more than 30 Harvard residents along her mail route. But in her guilty plea before Judge Timothy S. Hillman, Lacroix did not admit to the amount. “I don’t agree with the amount, but everything else is true,” she reportedly told the judge.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John T. Mulcahy said Lacroix opened greeting card envelopes to steal the enclosed gift cards. She also activated credit cards that arrived by mail, using her cell phone to call the 800 number listed on the card.
Mulcahy said Lacroix exchanged the stolen cards for drugs, although earlier accounts said she used the cards herself to charge thousands of dollars. Mulcahy also said Lacroix started stealing mail in June 2018. But authorities were already investigating her for thefts in April of that year. She was caught in the act of stealing mail in late summer and was arrested Nov. 16, 2018.
The 37-year-old Lacroix, who lives in Fitchburg, is currently in treatment for drug abuse and is also expecting a baby in June, according to her court-appointed lawyer, Joshua R. Hanye. Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for July. She faces a maximum of five years in prison, although court sentencing guidelines are lower, ranging from 10 to 16 months, according to Mulcahy.
