Wrong turn leads to postal carrier’s arrest; mail found in car included absentees
The postal carrier who had 800 pieces of undelivered mail in the trunk of his car got caught, in part, thanks to a wrong turn, according to federal authorities.
Brandon Wilson, 27, was arrested Tuesday night at the Peace Bridge after border agents found a bin containing mail destined for several ZIP codes and included three absentee ballots sent out by the Erie County Board of Elections, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court.
Wilson, of Buffalo, who was stopped at the bridge shortly after 7:30 p.m., allegedly told Customs and Border Protection agents the mail belonged to him and his mother, but could not explain the mail addressed to other people, according to the complaint filed by a special agent for the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General.
Wilson ended up at the bridge by accident. He had been traveling on the I-190 and got in the wrong lane, which brought him to the border crossing with Canada, federal authorities confirmed.
In addition to the absentee ballots, which had been sent to two addresses in Buffalo, the mail found in Wilson’s car consisted of 106 political mailings, 220 first-class mailings and 484 standard mailings.
The majority of the first-class mail was addressed to locations in the 14215 ZIP code, but other destination ZIP codes were 14227, 14211 and 14214.
