Stressed postie hoarded 20,000 letters

Published on Tuesday 9 September 2008 21:13

A SCOTTISH-born postman who felt stressed out by the workload of his night class hoarded 20,000 letters instead of delivering them, German police revealed today.

The 23-year-old, originally from Edinburgh, had failed to deliver any correspondence since August last year.

The postal worker instead hid the post in his flat in Frankfurt where he now lives and works.

Police said the postman's excuse was that he felt "swamped" by the demands of a night school he was attending.

Local authorities, doctors surgeries and solicitors were all hit by his failure to deliver the letters, catalogues and circulars.

None of the letters had been opened, including several addressed to the postman himself, police noted.

The deception was only discovered when a female witness spotted him dropping post into a bin and tipped off the authorities.

Frankfurt Police and security officials from the affected company searched his flat and found the post in bin bags, boxes, a wardrobe and wherever else they could be stored.

They needed two small vans to shift the thousands of letters.

"A conservative estimate indicates it involved at least 20,000 letters, which have still not reached their recipients," a police spokesman said.

"The 23 year old had not opened any of the letters, but had simply stored them to avoid delivering them."

He added: "It should be mentioned that the 23 year old had also failed to deliver several letters addressed to himself."

The spokesman said the postal worker could expect to be punished for the crimes of theft and embezzlement.