A 23-year-old U.S. Postal Service carrier in northeast Colorado — and also destroyed and opened other letters, postcards, packages and bags — was sentenced Tuesday to two years of probation.
Tayson Adam Hidalgo, of Sterling, was also ordered to complete 200 hours of community service and to pay restitution of $1,506.76 to the victims of his crime.
Colorado’s U.S. Attorney’s Office said Hidalgo gathered the items between October 2014 and April 2016.
Federal prosecutors say officials were able to return more than 26,000 pieces of undelivered mail that was located during their investigation.
“The recovered mail was addressed to residents within the city limits of Sterling and several local postal routes in Fort Morgan,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
Hidalgo was indicted last year by a federal grand jury in Denver on one count of delay or destruction of mail. Investigators have not elaborated on where the mail was found and a three-page indictment against Hidalgo did not provide further details.
