A Buffalo man has pleaded guilty in a federal mail-theft conspiracy tied to stolen checks worth about $369,000, prosecutors said. His co-defendant was previously convicted and sentenced in the same case.
Timothee Tidwell, 26, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail theft before U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara, according to a U.S. Attorney's Office release. The charge carries a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 23.
Prosecutors said Tidwell and Alexandria Duncan conspired between Oct. 9 and Oct. 14, 2024, to steal mail from receptacles in Hamburg and take items from the envelopes. Early on Oct. 14, Duncan drove Tidwell to a row of mailboxes outside the post office on Camp Road, prosecutors said.
Tidwell approached the boxes with a postal arrow key he was not legally entitled to possess, according to the release. Investigators later recovered opened and unopened mail addressed to other people from the vehicle the two used.
The opened mail included checks from individuals and businesses totaling approximately $369,104.92, prosecutors said. The release did not say that amount represented money the defendants obtained.
Duncan pleaded guilty earlier this year and has since been sentenced, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The latest release did not state her sentence.
The Village of Hamburg Police Department and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Franz Wright is prosecuting the case.
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