DALLAS — Two teenagers have pleaded guilty to robbing multiple U.S. Postal Service letter carriers this year, federal prosecutors said.
Jerrad Coleman, 18, and Louis Dixon, 18, on Tuesday pleaded guilty to charges of robbery of property of the United States and conspiracy to rob and unlawfully possess property of the United States, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas.
Coleman and Dixon were accused of robbing letter carriers twice in both Fort Worth and Dallas in January, in Fort Worth again in March and April and in Frisco in April, the release said.
The two "trawled the streets of DFW" looking for letter carriers to rob, prosecutors said. Their goal was to obtain what's known as an Arrow Key, the master key used by letter carriers to gather mail deposited in collection boxes, according to the release.
Often robbing the letter carriers at gunpoint, Coleman and Dixon would then flee in a getaway vehicle and use, sell or get rid of the stolen Arrow Keys, the release said.
Coleman and Dixon face a sentence of up to 15 years in federal prison.
“The U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service will never cease placing employee safety as one of our top priorities,” Inspector in Charge Kai Pickens, Fort Worth Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, said in the release. “Let this serve as a warning to anyone who seeks to harm and traumatize our employees: The U.S. Postal Inspection Service will utilize every resource to find you and bring you to justice."
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case. Police in Arlington, Dallas, Fort Worth and Frisco assisted in the investigation, while Assistant U.S. Attorney Levi Thomas was the prosecutor.
