United States v. Fred Carl Fisher

This appeal is one from a conviction after court trial for theft of United States mail on December 2, 1970. The statute charged to have been violated was 18 U.S.C. § 1708 .

A postal inspector placed a letter which had been properly stamped and addressed and contained five silver coins, on the floor of the United States Post Office Station about 5:00 a.m. The word “refused” had been written across the face of the envelope. The envelope was in the area where the postal clerks worked and not in the public portion of the office. About an hour and a half later the defendant, a custodian at the station found the letter, nudged it with his foot, picked it up and held it to the light, squeezed it and laid it on a counter. He returned a short time later and opened the letter, removed the coins which he put in his pocket and put the envelope in a trash container. At that time the postal inspector who had had Fisher under direct observation arrested him and recovered the coins.

The single issue raised on this appeal is whether the decoy letter which the defendant opened was “mail” within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 1708 . We hold that it was.

In Kelley v. United States, 166 F.2d 343 (9th…