Tulsan pleads guilty in mail-theft, ID-theft case
BY DAVID HARPER World Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 08, 2013
A Tulsa woman pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to possessing stolen mail, admitting in a court document that she illegally opened mailboxes at several Tulsa apartment complexes in order to steal their contents.
Evidence shows that Jennifer Kathryn Steffen stole mail from more than 100 residences over a two-month period, Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles McLoughlin said.
Steffen, 29, also pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft and unauthorized use of a credit card, both of which related to a Best Buy credit card that she had stolen from a woman's mailbox and used to make more than $2,900 in purchases on Sept. 29 and Oct. 1, the document states.
Steffen was arrested Oct. 3 on suspicion of stealing mail, according to Tulsa police.
A U.S. Postal Inspection Service affidavit says Steffen was identified by police as the person who was videotaped by a member of the public as she was taking mail from several mailboxes.
A handbag "that contained many pieces of first class mailings from a minimum of 20 different addresses" was recovered, the affidavit says.
Steffen admitted in her plea agreement that she had engaged in similar conduct on "several occasions" for a month or two before her arrest.
She said in the document that she walked through residential neighborhoods in the 21st Street and 129th East Avenue and 41st Street and Mingo Road areas and would use "several pry-type tools which I carried to open the apartment mail boxes."
U.S. Chief District Judge Gregory Frizzell is scheduled to sentence Steffen, who is in jail, on April 11. She faces a minimum of two years in prison.
