Who Stole 13,330 Postage Stamps And Why?

Vanessa Van-Kellogg was both an Orange County postal clerk and a prolific magician, of sorts.

During her shifts at El Toro's main post office in Lake Forest from October 2011 through January 2013, at least $6,000 in stamps disappeared without payment from the branch's inventory.

If you don't think that's simultaneously a petty and monumental criminal feat, consider this: In a little over a year, she stole the equivalent of about 13,330 first-class stamps.

Who was she mailing?

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We may never know. There won't be a trial. This month, a federal grand jury for the Central District of California indicted the postal employee for committing $102.30 in the thefts during a 2012 shift and she quickly signed a misdemeanor plea agreement acknowledging the remainder of the embezzlement in exchange for potential leniency.

At a future sentencing date inside the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana, Van-Kellogg, who was born in 1965, faces a maximum punishment of incarceration for a year and a $100,000 fine.

She will be ordered to pay the post office full restitution, according to court records.

A prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice's General Crimes Section in Los Angeles handled the case.

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