Everybody knows it's illegal to impersonate a police officer. But did you know it's also a federal crime to dress up as a postal worker unless you're employed by the U.S. Postal Service or an actor? You may have to rethink your sexy Cliff Clavin costume this Halloween.


The folks over at @CrimeADay brought this little fun fact to our attention:


So what's the penalty for representing yourself as a postal worker? A potential fine and up to six months in prison. Yeesh.

Most postal workers are incredibly hard-working government employees who perform their jobs admirably and deserve our utmost respect. And maybe there's a good argument to be made that the postal worker's uniform should be protected so that it's harder for people to commit fraud, posing as postmen and stealing your mail.

But after last week's revelations that a real live postal worker had been stealing and hoarding over 40,000 pieces of mail that he was supposed to deliver, dating back to at least 2005, some people in Brooklyn may as well have handed their letters off to any schmuck in a postal uniform.

Image: Postal worker in Miami in 2012 via Getty Images