Court papers: Stressed New York City postal worker dumped 1,000 pieces of mail

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Federal court papers say a postal worker was so overwhelmed by the holiday season workload on his delivery route that he dumped 1,000 pieces of mail in the trash.

The New York Post is reporting (http://nyp.st/1ZA3PcX ) that Queens postman Daniel Darby was charged with unlawfully delaying and destroying the mail. Federal officials say he was so stressed by the increase in December mail that he bought three white garbage bags, stuffed the mail into the bags and dumped them into the trash. They were discovered two days later.

According to the Post, a second mail carrier, James Hayden, was also accused of stealing 50 gift cards from envelopes over the past year in a separate case. The Brooklyn mail carrier was charged with stealing mail.

The men and their lawyers declined to comment.

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This story has been changed to remove a reference to the mail containing holiday gifts and cards. Court papers obtained by The Associated Press did not say what was in the discarded mail.

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Information from: New York Post, http://www.nypost.com