![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/USPSMailbox-1.jpg\")
Two East New York postal workers were indicted Monday in alleged check theft scheme.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\nTwo U.S. Postal Service employees assigned to the East New York Post Office have been accused of stealing nearly $15,000 in checks from residents along their mail routes between March 2023 and January 2024, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced Oct. 19.<\/p>\n
Nicole Bernard, 41, of East Flatbush, and a second employee identified as Hazzard were arraigned on separate indictments charging them with theft-related offenses, including criminal possession of a forged instrument. The alleged thefts involved checks totaling $14,953.55, according to the individual amounts outlined in the charges.<\/p>\n
Bernard was arraigned Oct. 6 before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun on two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, one count of third-degree grand larceny, one count of fourth-degree grand larceny and one count of petit larceny.<\/p>\n
Bernard worked as a carrier at the East New York station, located at 2645 Atlantic Ave., from January 2023 to February 2024. Between March 1, 2023, and January 2024, she allegedly stole four checks totaling $12,465.80. One check was made payable to an individual on her mail route, which Bernard allegedly deposited into her personal bank account. Two checks mailed from East New York were addressed to another person, while a fourth check intended for a resident on her route was allegedly deposited into a different account with a Connecticut address.<\/p>\n
Two East New York postal workers were indicted Monday in alleged check theft scheme.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n
Hazzard was arraigned Oct. 19 before Chun and is charged with seven counts of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, six counts of petit larceny and one count of attempted petit larceny.<\/p>\n
Hazzard worked as a carrier assistant at the East New York station from October 2023 to December 2023. Between Oct. 6 and Oct. 31, 2023, she allegedly stole seven checks made payable to individuals on her mail route and deposited them into her personal bank account. The checks totaled $2,487.75.<\/p>\n
Both Bernard and Hazzard were released without bail. Bernard was ordered to return to court Dec. 2, 2026, while Hazzard was ordered to return Dec. 16, 2026.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Gonzalez thanked KCDA Digital Forensic Analyst Yacelys Corona and Supervising Financial Investigator Susan Ryan for their assistance with the investigation, as well as the prosecutors, Postal Service partners and NYPD.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe defendants in this case were entrusted to deliver mail, including checks, safely to residents of East New York. Instead, they allegedly seized on an opportunity to enrich themselves by repeatedly stealing checks instead of delivering them. We will now seek to hold them accountable,\u201d Gonzalez said.<\/p>\n
Matthew M. Modafferi, special agent in charge of the Northeast Area Field Office of the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, also praised the partnership among the Brooklyn District Attorney\u2019s Office, the NYPD and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in the investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General is committed to investigating allegations of employee misconduct and protecting the integrity of the Postal Service,\u201d Modafferi said.<\/p>\n
Darnell Edwards, inspector in charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service\u2019s New York Division, said postal inspectors would continue to uphold the sanctity of the U.S. Mail and pursue those who violate it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese individuals allegedly stole U.S. Mail in which they were entrusted to deliver to residents in their community,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cWe will hold accountable those who exploit the U.S. Mail to further their crimes, especially USPS employees, for their serious breach of trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
The investigations were conducted by New York City Police Department Detective Dillon Shimansky of the Financial Crimes Task Force and Special Agent Erin Nolan of the USPS Office of Inspector General, with assistance from Postal Inspector Anthony Ruffini of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.<\/p>\n
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Tony Kim of the District Attorney\u2019s Investigations Division, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Adam Libove, chief of the District Attorney\u2019s Public Integrity Bureau, and the overall supervision of Assistant District Attorney Michel Spanakos, deputy chief of the Investigations Division, and Assistant District Attorney Patricia McNeill, chief of the Investigations Division.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two U.S. Postal Service employees assigned to the East New York Post Office have been accused of stealing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[21314,138872,138873,9,24,55,54,12,370,56,138874,68320,138875,8161,138876],"class_list":["post-377939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-brooklyn-district-attorney-eric-gonzalez","tag-check-theft","tag-east-new-york-post-office","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-ny","tag-postal-employee-indictment","tag-postal-worker","tag-u-s-postal-inspection-service-new-york-division","tag-usps","tag-usps-postal-employee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}