A former Prentice contract rural route mail carrier has entered a guilty plea to one count of mail theft.
The U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin says 47 year old Belinda Chizek pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Madison.
Last September , a federal grand jury in Madison returned a one-count indictment against Chizek.
The indictment alleged that while working as a contract rural route carrier Chizek stole mail. At the plea hearing, Chizek admitted that she stole cash from mail that she had been assigned to deliver on her two rural routes in Phillips in February and March 2016. After being caught stealing $20 from a test mailing, Chizek confessed to postal inspectors. She told the inspectors she stole cash from the mail to pay her bills because her family bait shop business was not doing well. Chizek estimated she opened over 100 pieces of mail and stole about $500 in cash during February and March 2016.
U.S. District Judge James Peterson scheduled sentencing for February 14.
