Maine Mailman Steals Valuable Baseball Card

I, as I'm sure many of you are as well, am a Netflix subscriber. The idea of actually leaving my apartment to go to the local Blockbuster is just too much for me to deal with, so I need my movies delivered to me by mail. I'm a blogger, after all, and it's difficult for us to wear anything other than our underwear and leave mom's basement.

As a Netflix subscriber, I've often wondered why it takes up to a week for a movie I put in the mail to get back to Netflix when their nearest facility is located about fifteen miles away from me. Well, it appears that I may have gotten my answer. My mailman is taking those movies home and watching them himself. It's the only logical explanation.

I mean, they're already stealing baseball cards, why not my movies?

Richard Trofatter Jr., 31, of 1090 Meetinghouse Road, Wells, Maine, pleaded guilty in Portsmouth District Court Tuesday to a class A misdemeanor count of theft of lost or mislaid property. His attorney, James Noucas, told the court his client was recently treated for "obsessive compulsive behavior surrounding baseball cards" and according to a police report, Trofatter described himself as "borderline addicted" to collecting the cards.

A police affidavit filed with the court by detective John Peracchi says he was contacted by a representative of the U.S. Postal Service on May 7, reporting the "mail theft" of a 1915 Cracker Jack baseball card depicting New York Giants pitcher and Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson.

The card had been graded and given a serial number before it was put in the mail by an eBay seller in Michigan who insured it for $655, according to court records. When an eBay buyer in Maine reported he never received it, the Postal Service launched an investigation, discovered the card had been sold on eBay for $1,211, then traced it back to mail handler Trofatter, who was working at the 345 Heritage Ave. postal facility, according to Peracchi's affidavit.

How dumb can one mailman be? It's bad enough that he's stealing property from other people (where he can be traced), but the fact he's then selling it on eBay (where he can be traced) is just the icing on the cake. Not to mention that the card has a serial number, so it's not like he can pretend the one he had was any different.

(Hat tip to SPORTSbyBROOKS)