A Hyattsville woman working as a postal service mail processor was indicted in federal court on Friday on charges she stole mail addressed to charities and containing checks worth $9,000.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District said Lisa M. Hunter, 40, faces up to five years in prison if convicted of theft of mail by a government employee after she was indicted by a grand jury in U.S. District Court for the District on that charge and two counts of first-degree theft.

Authorities said that on June 2 at about 10:40 a.m., a Postal Service police officer saw Ms. Hunter pushing a mail cart through a turnstile at the employee exit of the Brentwood postal facility in Northeast Washington.

When questioned, she claimed that she had been authorized by a supervisor to remove the mail from the facility. But the man she said gave her permission told investigators he was not her supervisor and that he did not authorize her to take the mail.

Prosecutors said the mail was addressed to two charities and contained more than $9,000 worth of donations in the form of cash and checks. The charities included World Villages for Children, which provides food, care and education for needy children throughout the world, and Help Hospitalized Veterans, which distributes therapeutic arts and crafts to patients at Department of Veterans Affairs centers and encourages volunteers and pen-pal relationships with hospitalized veterans.

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