Ohio Postal Workers Charged with Using Stolen Credit Cards From Mail Routes at Walmart and Home Depot

The federal courthouse in Downtown Cleveland. Credit: Tim Evanson

Two mail carriers for the United States Postal Service were charged this week with using stolen credit cards to buy $13,046 worth of items at a Walmart and Home Depot in Northeast Ohio.

Barbara Smith and Brian Dudinsky, USPS workers in Rome, Ohio, were indicted in the U.S. Northern District of Ohio federal court on Wednesday on ten counts of crime, spanning almost a year, ranging from wire fraud to embezzlement.

The two “knowingly combined, conspired, confederated and agreed with each other,” the court document reads, “to knowingly device [sic] a scheme and artifice to steal credit cards and debit cards” at stores in and around Cleveland.

According to the Feds, Smith and Dudinsky allegedly took unactivated credit and debit cards out of mail on their routes, activated the cards themselves, then used them to buy things at Walmart and Home Depot.

And not just for a weekly grocery run.

In September 2023, Smith apparently used one card to make a $1,505 purchase at Walmart. The following April, Dudinsky allegedly made a $6,444 order at a Home Depot, then another one three days later for $3,736.

The bulk of the charges constitute acts of wire fraud, as both credit card companies are headquartered in other states.

Both Smith and Dudinsky have yet to be arraigned in court.