Oakland mail thief sentenced

(KRON) — A thief who broke into a U.S. Postal Service mail truck in Oakland and led police on a wrong-way high-speed chase on Interstate-880 was sentenced to serve two years in prison.

Craig Curtis Freeman, 35, of Sacramento, pleaded guilty and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam on May 29, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Northern District of California.

The case stems from an incident on Dec. 30, 2022, when a mail carrier heard a gunshot and saw two people grabbing mail out of his U.S. Postal Service truck.

At the time, there was a surge in burglaries, robberies, and assaults targeting postal workers in the San Francisco Bay Area, prosecutors said.

In his plea agreement, Freeman admitted that he was driving a stolen car when he pulled up behind the mail truck in Oakland, broke the lock of the truck's rear cargo door, removed more than 700 pieces of mail, placed it into the stolen car, and drove away.

Law enforcement officers caught up with Freeman within minutes. While fleeing from officers, the duo crashed the stolen getaway vehicle into a truck. Freedman then jumped into the damaged truck and used to as a second getaway vehicle, prosecutors said.

“Freeman drove the truck at a high rate of speed through the streets of San Leandro before entering I-880 North through the exit off-ramp. Freeman was able to evade police while driving the stolen truck in the wrong direction on the freeway but was later apprehended,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote.

A federal grand jury indicted Freeman on March 28, 2023 for breaking into a mail carrier facility, and possession of stolen mail, and mail theft. He pleaded guilty to all counts.

Postal Inspector in Charge Rafael Nunez said, “There is no more important mission for us as federal agents than protecting postal workers from crime and violence. To any copycats or wannabes out there who might consider robbing a postal worker, I ask you to consider the years you will face in federal prison, the price on your head, and that postal inspectors will not stop hunting you.”

U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey said federal laws are “carefully crafted to protect the sanctity of the mail, including the sensitive information we entrust to the mail system; the safety of the federal employees and contractors who deliver the mail; and the federal property that is used to ensure mail delivery.”

The case was the result of an investigation by the Alameda County Sheriff's Office, Oakland Police Department, and U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

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