Are You (Accidentally) Holding Stolen Property from the Post Office?

Do you by chance have a white plastic bin that you procured from a Post Office? They look like this:

(image via presort.com)

It turns out that the theft and unlawful use of mail equipment costs the Post Office more than $50 million annually (per the Sacramento Bee).  Every plastic tub costs the Post Office $4, and the wooden pallet skids cost a whopping $16 each (per The Consumerist)!  As those of us who have worked in offices know, those items tend to stick around and get re-used.

Just be aware that using an official USPS bin for storage or convenience is ILLEGAL — if you or your office receives equipment like this, you’re supposed to give it back to your carrier the next day.

This message is brought to you by Goin’ Postal Tallahassee, your one-stop shop for USPS, FedEx, UPS, and DHL mailing services.  Give us a call at (850) 692-3130, visit us on the web at http://gpoftallahassee.com, or drive to our store at 5810 North Monroe Street, Suite 210A, Tallahassee, Florida, and we can help you package your items safely and cheaply!!!

You can also connect with us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/gptally) or like our Facebook fan page!

Goin’ Postal Tallahassee announces partnership with Epyon Technologies, Inc.

Goin’ Postal Tallahassee is proud to announce a partnership with Epyon Technologies of Tallahassee, Florida.  Epyon Technologies is a computer repair firm that specializes in Network Repair and Replacement, Software Design, Server Setup and Maintenance, and Data Backup and Recovery.  And now, you can drop off your damaged computer at Goin’ Postal Tallahassee AND pick up your repaired computer here–all for a low, flat-rate fee!

For more information, give us a call at (850) 692-3130, visit us on the web at http://gpoftallahassee.com, or drive to our store at 5810 North Monroe Street, Suite 210A, Tallahassee, Florida!

You can also connect with us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/gptally) or like our Facebook fan page!

Help Victims of the Gulf Oil Spill…

Thousands of families along the Gulf Central Coast have already been affected by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The seafood and tourism industries, among others, currently feel the initial impact of the disaster.

Video:

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/living/2010/06/30/sylvester.oil.al.food.bank.cnn.html

YOU can directly help families along the Central Gulf Coast by donating goods that will be used to pack emergency food boxes, or will be distributed at a ‘mobile pantry event’, a traveling food pantry that delivers groceries directly to affected coastal communities.

Most- Needed Items:

> Canned Meats ( tuna, chicken, salmon, etc. )

> Canned Fruits and Vegetables

> Canned and Boxed Meals ( Soup, Macaroni & Cheese, etc.)

> Peanut Butter

> Pasta, Rice, Cereal

> 100% Fruit Juice ( Canned, Plastic, or Boxed)

Donated items will be collected from
{Information redacted — donation drive has ended}

This announcement was brought to you by Goin’ Postal Tallahassee.  Give us a call at (850) 692-3130, visit us on the web at http://gpoftallahassee.com, or drive to our store at 5810 North Monroe Street, Suite 210A, Tallahassee, Florida, and we can help you package your items safely and cheaply!!!

You can also connect with us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/gptally) or like our Facebook fan page!

Happy 4th of July Weekend from Goin’ Postal Tallahassee

As we prepare to celebrate our nation’s 234th birthday, let’s remember all who have sacrificed to make this day mean something to us…and those who have made it possible for us to celebrate it any way we wish… Happy 4th of July!!!

How often we fail to realize our good fortune in living in a country where happiness is more than a lack of tragedy.  ~Paul Sweeney

My God!  How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!  ~Thomas Jefferson

It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you.  ~Author unknown, sometimes attributed to M. Grundler

Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.  ~Louis D. Brandeis

This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.  ~Elmer Davis

This message brought to you by the veteran who owns Goin’ Postal of Tallahassee at (850) 692-3130, visit us on the web at http://gpoftallahassee.com, or drive to our store at 5810 North Monroe Street, Suite 210A, Tallahassee, Florida, and we can help you package your items safely and cheaply!!!

You can also connect with us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/gptally) or like our Facebook fan page!

USPS Employee Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison for Mail Theft Conspiracy…

  Defendant Worked as a Mail Handler at Dallas Main Post Office

DALLAS — A former employee of the U.S. Postal Service, James Olabode Laniyan, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge Jorge A. Solis to 60 months in federal prison, the statutory maximum, for his role in a mail theft conspiracy, announced U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas. Judge Solis also ordered that Laniyan, pay $302,620 in restitution for disbursement to Discover Card Services and Capital Bank One Bank. Laniyan, 51, of Grand Prairie, Texas, was ordered to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on July 28, 2010.

Laniyan pleaded guilty in February 2010 to one count of conspiracy to possess stolen mail matter and commit fraud and related activity in connection with access devices. In January 2010, Laniyan’s co-conspirator, Sulaimon Olasode, 36, of Houston, Texas, pleaded guilty to the same offense and was sentenced last month by Judge Solis to 48 months in federal prison and ordered to pay restitution jointly and severally with Laniyan. Olasode is in federal custody; following his sentence, will be referred to U.S. Immigration authorities for deportation to Nigeria.

According to documents filed in the case, Laniyan was employed as a mail handler with the U.S. Postal Service at the Dallas Main Post Office. Sometime prior to October 2008, Olasode approached Laniyan about stealing mail from the post office. After considering the money he could make, Laniyan agreed to participate in the conspiracy, which they ran until August 5, 2009.

“The American public trusts the Postal Service to deliver its mail intact. When a postal employee betrays that trust and steals mail, then uses stolen financial information to wreak havoc in the lives of our citizens, Special Agents of the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General investigate. Fortunately, these incidents are not common, and the overwhelming majority of the 600,000 postal employees are honest and hard-working. With the prosecutive support of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, we will aggressively pursue any employee committing a postal crime,” said Max Eamiguel, Executive Special Agent-in-Charge, Office of Inspector General, U.S. Postal Service, Southwest Area Field Office.

Laniyan stole credit cards and credit card customer information by removing letters and parcels from the mail stream and then sent the contents of the stolen mail to Olasode in Houston for him to activate and use the stolen credit cards in the Houston area. In February 2009, members of Discover Financial Services Organized Crime Unit identified more than 40 credit cards mailed to customers in the Dallas area that were never received and later compromised. The vast majority of the compromised cards were being fraudulently used in the Houston, Katy, Sugarland and Richmond, Texas, areas.

Approximately 150 victims had their Capital One or Discover credit cards stolen in the scheme.

Residents of the Florida Big Bend area, make sure you visit Goin’ Postal Tallahassee at 5810 North Monroe Street, Suite 210A, Tallahassee, Florida. We offer many different ways to ship your important documents with tracking, signature delivery confirmation, and insurance!!! See more on our website, http://gpoftallahassee.com !

You can also connect with us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/gptally) or like our Facebook fan page!

When the Music Stopped…

 (For those who are unaware: At all military base theaters, The National Anthem is played before the movie begins.)
This is written from a Chaplain in Iraq :
I recently attended a showing of ‘Superman 3′ here at LSA Anaconda.  We have a large auditorium we use for movies, as well as memorial services and other large gatherings. As is the custom at all military bases, we stood at attention when the National Anthem began before the main feature. All was going well until three-quarters of the way through the National Anthem, the music stopped.  Now, what would happen if this occurred with 1,000 18 to 22 year-olds back in the States?  I imagine there would be hoots, catcalls, laughter, a few rude comments, and everyone would sit down and yell for the movie to begin.  Of course, that is, if they had stood for the National Anthem in the first place.  Here in Iraq, 1,000 Soldiers continued to stand at attention, eyes fixed forward.  The music started again and the Soldiers continued to quietly stand at attention.  But again, at the same point, the music stopped.  What would you expect 1,000 soldiers standing at attention to do??  Frankly, I expected some laughter, and everyone would eventually sit down and wait for the movie to start.  But No!!… You could have heard a pin drop, while every Soldier continued to stand at attention.  Suddenly, there was a lone voice from the front of the auditorium, then a dozen voices, and soon the room was filled with the voices of a thousand soldiers, finishing where the recording left off: “And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave, o’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.”  It was the most inspiring moment I have had in Iraq and I wanted you to know what kind of Soldiers are serving you.

Remember them as they fight for us!  Pass this along as a reminder to others to be ever in prayer for all our soldiers serving us here at home and abroad. Many have already paid the ultimate price.

Written by Chaplain Jim Higgins. LSA Anaconda is at the Balad Airport in Iraq, north of Baghdad.

This message brought to you by the proud veteran who owns Goin’ Postal of Tallahassee. You can reach us at (850) 692-3130, visit us on the web at http://gpoftallahassee.com, or drive to our store at 5810 North Monroe Street, Suite 210A, Tallahassee, Florida, and we can help you package your items safely and cheaply!!!

You can also connect with us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/gptally) or like our Facebook fan page!

GP TALLAHASSEE FEATURED PRODUCT: www.mysimplemobilenow.com

Simple Mobile™ is a fast-growing wireless provider whose goal is to give the customer the best-quality service, comparable to companies such as AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon—-without the constraints of contractual obligations. Just from personal experience, there is nothing more frustrating than not being able to get the phone you REALLY want without adding 2-3 years or $30/month to your already substantial wireless bill. Or having the freedom of a prepaid plan, only to have inconsistent phone service, or not being able to get quality wireless products. My Simple Mobile Now combines the best of both worlds.
1.Simple Mobile operates in partnership with T-Mobile, and runs off their satellites. So you won’t experience the limited coverage areas, dropped calls, or spotty internet connections that you get with other pre-paid programs.
2.Simple Mobile offers a wide range of phones, from major brands such as Motorola, LG, Samsung, and BlackBerry—even the Apple I-Phone!
3.There are no 2 or 3-year service contracts. All you have to do is buy the phone and SIM Card, and you pay by the month, as you go. That means no new contracts every time you want to get a new phone!
The major carriers will try to entice you with rebates and deals on phones—as long as you sign a new contract with them. This way, they make their money back on the phone—AND THEN SOME. Let me use my old phone service as an example. I had a family plan with one of the major carriers, which included 3 phones, 2000 anytime minutes per month, unlimited text messaging in the US. Our bill, with taxes, was about $215.00 per month. Keep in mind that anytime you want to go on the internet, it was $2.50 per day; anytime you wanted to call ‘411’ it was another $2.00 per month. Now, in order to switch to the BlackBerry Curve, we had to pay $30.00 per phone, add $9.99 PER PHONE to add the Data (Internet) Plan, AND sign a new 2-year contract!!! This means, for the 3 phone lines, we would be paying :
Phones: $90.00
New Phone Plan
(With Internet): $245.00 @ 24 months = $ 5880.00
___________
$5970.00

That’s almost $6,000 for two years!!! Now, let’s use the same formula for Simple Mobile service:
Phones: $250.00 @ 3 phones= $750.00
New Phone Plan: $150.00 @ 24 months= $3600.00
___________
$4350.00
This means you would save over $1,600.00 over the two years with the same phones, and no contract! Plus, with the Simple Mobile you receive unlimited calls and texts—even INTERNATIONALLY–and unlimited directory assistance!

So, if you like: a) not being tied into a contractual agreement with your wireless provider; b) being able to get the phone you want WHEN you want it; and c) saving money, then Simple Mobile is for you. You can contact Goin’ Postal Tallahassee at (850)668-1840 for more information; or visit the website www.mysimplemobilenow.com  to see the different plans and phones. Make sure when you order your phone, you say the code ‘GOINPOSTAL’, and receive 1/2 OFF  PHONE ACTIVATION!!!
THE FUTURE OF WIRELESS SERVICE IS HERE!!! DON’T MISS OUT!!!

Goin’ Postal Tallahassee’s July 4th Promotion

In honor of Independence day (July 4th, 2010), Goin’ Postal Tallahassee will be sending ‘care packages’ to our troops stationed overseas, protecting our freedoms.  You can help by donating items such as:

 food-chips, nuts, beef jerky, candy, energy drinks, etc.—just make sure it is not perishable or need refrigeration.

hygiene items-mouthwash, sanitizing wipes, chapstick, etc.

magazines, books, etc.

We will also accept cash donations, which we will use to buy those items.

When you donate items to send, you will receive a coupon for 10% OFF of your next FedEx, UPS, or DHL Service!!!

Also, if you have a friend or family member in the military, stop by the store and give us their mailing information, and we will send them a care package as well !!!

The deadline to get items over to the troops is Next Saturday, June 18th, 2010.  Visit our website, www.goinpostaltallahasee.com for hours and directions.  Our freedom does not come without a cost—and these men and women are sacrificing everything to protect us—so PLEASE HELP SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!!!