Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020 | 4:40 p.m.
After mail was reported missing on a U.S. Postal Service carrier’s Las Vegas route, federal agents placed cash and a tracker inside a piece of mail he was supposed to deliver.
The man, a contracted carrier working for USPS, opened the letter, triggering an alarm.
During a six-month span in 2019, David Stephen Bangs II, 34, tore through letters, stole cash, and didn’t deliver political advertisements, records show. An investigation determined that Bangs stole mail from at least 67 people.
A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced Bangs, a Henderson resident, to six months in prison and one year of supervised release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the district of Nevada announced.
He pleaded guilty to one count of mail theft in February.
“Our office is proud to partner with the U.S. Postal Service to stop mail theft in our Nevada communities — including by holding accountable those who betray the public’s trust,” U.S. Attorney Nicholas Trutanich said today in a news release.
Bangs worked out of the Westridge Post Office beginning in April 2018. There were seemingly no issues until June the following year, when residents in the 89179 ZIP code, near Mountain’s Edge, began to complain about missing or rifled mail.
Bangs was identified as the carrier assigned to those addresses, and agents set up the sting operation on Aug. 7, 2019.
Bangs was arrested that day. When agents searched his work van, they found the empty torn envelope in his lunch box, as well as other open mail in the vehicle.
A search through his personal pickup truck yielded undelivered political literature and other open letters.
Post-arrest, Bangs admitted to taking the money agents had used to lure him. He admitted to going through people’s mail for six months.
“The American public trusts that U.S. Postal Service employees will obey the law and honor the commitment to their duties,” said Special Agent in Charge John Masters, in the release. “When that duty and trust is violated, the Postal Service Office of Inspector General … investigates those matters.”
“This sentencing sends a clear message that mail theft is a serious crime, which carries serious consequences,” Masters added.
