Mail worker’s husband sentenced in Charlotte check theft scheme
A mail carrier’s husband will spend nearly six years in prison for a scheme that stole more than $8 million in checks from Charlotte-area mailboxes.
Kiara Padgett was employed by the U.S. Postal Service and used her position to steal incoming and outgoing checks from August 2021 to November 2022, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson.
After snatching the checks, Dominique Dunlap, Padgett’s husband, sold them to others — including Terrell Alexander Hager Jr. Hager then posted more than $7 million in checks for sale online, according to court documents.
He was sentenced to three years in connection with the scheme in October 2024.
Now, Dunlap must now pay a $1.65 million restitution, a judge ordered Monday. Padgett has not yet been sentenced.
Dunlap and Padgett both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years, in 2023. Dunlap also pleaded guilty to four counts of possession of stolen mail.
“I am sick and tired of checks being stolen from the mail,” Ferguson said in a statement, “particularly where it is done internally by an employee. We will aggressively prosecute these cases to put an end to this crime.”
