Former Stamford Postal Employee Accused Of Stealing Mail Arrested After Pursuit: PD

STAMFORD, CT — A 34-year-old former Stamford postal employee accused of stealing mail and checks was arrested last week following a brief pursuit and standoff, according to the Stamford Police Department.

Authorities had been looking for Blount for weeks— even offering a $100,000 reward for information on her whereabouts — when Stamford police and the United States Postal Inspection Service tried stopping her in a silver Mercedes Benz with Georgia license plates just after 4:30 p.m. on Broad Street on June 17, Assistant Stamford Police Chief Richard Conklin told Patch.

Blount sped off, Conklin said, and the vehicular pursuit was aborted "because she was driving in a very reckless manner."

Officers canvassed the area and later found the Mercedes parked in a lot off West Broad Street with different plates, Conklin said.

Blount was tracked to a high-rise building on Spruce Street and officers gathered information from the public that she was in an apartment, Conklin said.

"[Officers] surrounded and called her out. There was some standoff for a while, and after a bit she came out and turned herself in," Conklin added.

A federal grand jury in New Haven returned a 10-count indictment in March that charged Blount with fraud, identity theft and mail theft offenses, Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and Ketty Larco-Ward, inspector in charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Boston Division, said in a joint news release earlier this month when the indictment was unsealed.

The indictment specifically charged Blount with eight counts of bank fraud, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 30 years on each count; one count of aggravated identity theft, an offense that carries a mandatory prison term of two years; and one count of unlawful possession of stolen mail, which carries a maximum term prison term of five years, officials said.

According to the indictment, Blount, at times while employed by the U.S. Postal Service in Stamford, stole mail and obtained stolen mail for the purpose of getting checks that were payable to other people, officials said.

In approximately November 2021, Blount opened a bank account using the name and social security number of an individual without the identity theft victim’s knowledge, officials said.

Blount and others fraudulently changed the payee names on stolen checks to the name of the identity theft victim, forged the victim’s signature on the back of the checks, and deposited them into the bank account Blount opened, according to officials.

From November 2021 until the account was closed in April 2022, Blount and others deposited tens of thousands of dollars in fraudulent checks into the account, officials said, noting they then used the funds for their own purposes.

Blount is currently being held in North Carolina on house arrest with an ankle monitoring bracelet, police said. Conklin noted Blount has family and children in North Carolina. She is also charged with engaging police in pursuit, misuse of marker plates, failure to obey a traffic signal, failure to obey a stop sign, and interfering with an officer, stemming from the events on June 17.

Blount was originally arrested on June 20, 2023, on firearms charges and risk of injury to a minor, police said at the time.

The CT Judicial Branch website shows Blount has a scheduled court date in Stamford on Sept. 12.