Downstate postal worker admits stealing mail

BENTON -- Sentencing is set for July in the case of a southern Illinois postal worker who admits stealing items from mail.

Thirty-four-year-old Heather Stowers of Tamaroa pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Benton to a mail-theft charge.

Stowers was assigned to deliver mail to residents and businesses in DuQuoin and Tamaroa. But he drew scrutiny from federal postal inspectors with some on Stowers' route saying they weren't receiving packages they were expecting.

Stowers admits she pilfered items from the mail to at least eight customers between April and August of last year.

She's free on bond pending sentencing.