crime

KN, p. 287 “Postal Inspectors: Law Enforcement Agents”

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Most of us think of the Post Office as the local place where we mail packages, pick up our mail from those handy P.O. Boxes, and buy stamps from the helpful window clerks. In fact there are many different types of employees within the country’s postal system, including Postal Inspectors and Postal Police Officers. The 1200 Postal Inspectors are federal law enforcement officers entitled to carry firearms and make arrests in order to protect the system from people that would commit fraud through its use.

 

The first Postmaster General of the United States, Benjamin Franklin, set up a system back in the 1770s whereby mail theft could be investigated by the newly formed U.S. Postal Inspection Service. 240+ years later, there are 200 laws that deal with specific crimes against the USPS. These days, much more than letters and money is stolen from the mail and the postal service is used by nefarious types for transporting all kinds of illegal items, including pornography.


The USPIS reports that it made 5,759 arrests in 2019, with an 80% conviction rate, largely for mail theft and mail fraud.

While mail and package thefts are thoroughly investigated, those thefts pale in comparison monetarily to the millions of dollars of illegal drugs that criminals attempt to pass through the system each year. The USPIS employs state-of-the-art methods at their National Forensic Laboratory in Virginia to detect and identify opioids and other drugs after seizure, process fingerprints and DNA to tie the drugs to the bad guys, and ferret out cyber criminals of all types that seek to misuse the mails.

Due to the growing global problems with opioid and fentanyl trafficking, the USPIS agents work cases together with the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency), Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to enforce the laws of our country. One interesting method of detecting illicit drugs in the mail allows inspectors to check for 300+ substances without ever opening the packages.

The USPS takes the mission of guarding the mail quite seriously and has a few tips for private citizens to help avoid theft of packages and letters. Check them out:

  • Pick up your mail daily. If you’ll be away, contact the local post office and have them hold your mail until you return.
  • Don’t send cash in the mail.
  • If you need to send something important in the mail, take it to the physical post office or drop it in one of the big blue mail boxes right before pickup time.

If you expect to receive a particular piece of mail and don’t, call the local post office and/or call the sender as soon as you realize it hasn’t arrived on time.

 

If you suspect mail fraud, you can report it by writing to this address:

Criminal Investigations Service Center
Attn: Mail Fraud
433 W.Harrison Street, Room 3255
Chicago, Il 60699-3255

 

Just in case you think that the USPIS focuses on the bad guys alone, they also send out emergency response teams after natural disasters (like fires and hurricanes) in order to restart mail service.

 

The USPIS press kit (https://www.uspis.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/uspis-press-kit-fact-sheet-2021.pdf) points out some of the agency’s duties and history.


Stay tuned for the next article about the USPIS, where I share information about high profile cases in which they have been involved.

 

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KN, p. 153 “Where are the bodies buried?”

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I was thumbing through the Kerrian’s Notebook file cabinet, checking for the articles written about bodies – where and how to hide them and various problems with methods used on TV and in the movies. I was a Homicide Detective for a good many years and saw my share of cases that made my jaw drop. I can’t go into detail about my own cases, but the links to real world cases within the Kerrian’s Notebook articles are authentic. Stranger than fiction? Perhaps. But then, criminals often defy logic.

 

Take a look at ten of the most frequently read posts about how people wind up dead, and where some criminals attempt to hide the bodies. (Click on the titles)

“100 ways to die an unnatural death”  

“Death by Elevator”   

“50 more ways to die an unnatural death”   

“Cemetery at the Golf Course”

“Underwater Evidence and Body Recovery: Lakes and Bodies of Water“

“Is that a body in the rug?”

“Crime Scene at the Beach”  

“What does a Texas Ranger do?”  

“Is that a body under the deck?” 

“Murder in the Cathedral”  

 

Keep checking back at Kerrian’s Notebook for more places to hide the bodies – you know there will be more. 😉

 

 

 

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KN, p. 280 “Was It Medical Malpractice?”

One of the Carolina cousins passed away this summer. Way too many sleepless nights had finally led him to see the doc and undergo testing, then in April was diagnosed with a serious, but treatable, type of cancer.

The doc revealed his treatment plan: Surgery would take 6-8 hours, followed by a typical hospital stay of 6-8 days, two weeks tops, then a rehab facility for two weeks, then home to live a full, active life for another 5-6 years.

A few weeks of inconvenience as a trade off for 5-6 years, maybe more? A pretty good deal.

Except that it wasn’t at all.

He was in the hospital for a hideous 35 days of never-ending tests and noise and food that tasted so vile to him that he couldn’t get it down. I was with him almost every day in order to advocate for him and keep him company. He wanted to go home (with help) but he was discharged to a skilled nursing facility to get the occupational therapy he still needed.

Less than two weeks later, he was released to his house on a Friday afternoon without medical assistance in place for the weekend. By Monday, he was back in the hospital, a local one. They ran various tests and discovered a life-threatening infection that the skilled nursing facility would/should have known about. By the end of the week, he was in Hospice care in a local facility. He ended his days there, about three weeks later.

Our cousin was not an easy patient (translation: grumpy) but with a hospital stay 25-30 days longer than predicted, and never regaining an appetite to eat, I’d be grumpy, too.


Several people have suggested that we have a malpractice suit in the making.

From the AMA (American Medical Association): “Malpractice is, by definition, medical care that is grossly inferior to what is normally provided by other physicians in the community. Using this legal definition, and based on local standards of care, less than 10 percent of cases filed for litigation are instances of malpractice.”

From The American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys:
“The injured patient must show that the physician acted negligently in rendering care, and that such negligence resulted in injury. To do so, legal elements must be proven:

(1) a professional duty owed to the patient;

(2) breach of such duty;

(3) injury caused by the breach;

 

Here are some examples of medical negligence that might lead to a lawsuit:

  • Failure to diagnose or a misdiagnosis.
  • Misreading or ignoring laboratory results.
  • Unnecessary surgery.
  • Surgical errors (puncturing other organs) or wrong site surgery (wrong body part) or leaving medical tools inside the patient.
  • Improper medication or dosage (including amount and/or type of anesthesia)
  • Poor follow-up or aftercare.
  • Premature discharge.

Our suspicion is that somebody dropped the ball at the first skilled nursing place. He had been chatty a few days before, planning the renovation projects in his house, and looking forward to getting home to food that he enjoyed. He had become self-sufficient in every way except for care of his surgical area. In our opinion, a few more days of training would have helped with that. But, just because we found fault with the care isn’t proof of medical negligence.

 

I came down with pleurisy, so didn’t observe his condition during the final days leading up to his discharge from that facility.

This was never a case of Covid related problems. Patients had to be Covid-free in order to be admitted to any of the facilities. Each staff member was tested daily and nobody entered the buildings without a mask.

It’s been five months since the diagnosis and two months since he died. Pointing fingers is a natural reaction, because we want to blame someone for an untimely death. Our opinion that somebody ‘dropped the ball’ is not enough for legal recourse. There must be proof of negligence, and people available/willing to testify to wrong doing.

 

Sad, but true, the fact is that people can die after a serious illness or prolonged surgery. Emotions run high when that happens, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that a crime was committed.

 

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