Postal employee steals enough mail to host a giant weiner roast

This hilarious incident brings up all sorts of questions, like: why didn't the postal worker throw away the junk mail like everybody else does? If he was stealing this mail to get ideas for his own direct mail business, why was he still working at the post office years later? How many postal workers did it take to count the 26,000 pieces of hoarded mail? And did the USPS finish delivering those pieces, or did they toss them?

Joke: How many postal workers does it take to sort 26,000 pieces of direct mail? Answer: Only one, because all the mail goes to his own house.

• A longtime Postal Service employee has been charged with stealing thousands of pieces of junk mail--all in a bizarre effort to garner ideas for a direct mail business he ran on the side, authorities said Thursday.
• The thefts were discovered last November when a fire broke out at the Downers Grove home of the postal employee, Gordon Richardson Jr., officials said.
• Firefighters had to remove piles of junk mail from the home in order to reach the blaze, said David Colen, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Chicago.
• The thefts drew no suspicion since he was not stealing greeting cards or other first-class letters that people expected to receive, Colen said.
• Another neighbor, Sharon Smith, lived across the street from Richardson for 15 years.