Postal inspector charged with stealing Playboys, passports, pills

(06-26) 21:04 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A U.S. supervisory postal inspector once named a federal employee of the year has been charged in federal court with stealing mail containing prescription pills, jewelry, passports, collectable Playboy magazines and other items that had gotten loose from torn or damaged packages in San Jose, court records show.

Quan Howard, 52, of Saratoga used his position as a supervisor to order employees at a San Jose processing and distribution center to call his office or cell phone whenever cash, drugs, electronics, jewelry, rare coins, precious metals and other memorabilia were found loose in the mail, Christine Hodakievic, a special agent with the U.S. Postal Service office of the inspector general wrote in an affidavit.

Howard's directives were also in violation of postal service policy, authorities said.

Federal prosecutors in San Jose charged Howard this week with delaying and destroying mail, theft of mail and possession of stolen mail from 2013 to 2014.

Howard told employees he would help return the items to their owners but would instead take the items and either leave the distribution center with them or hide the valuables in hampers and cabinets in a room inside the facility, authorities said.

He routinely engaged in what is known as counter-surveillance, looking for security cameras and signs of intrusion to ensure that he wasn't caught, Hodakievic wrote.

"Howard used a flashlight to assist in his examination, including to scan surfaces of desks and walls," Hodakievic wrote, citing surveillance video. The inspector would also compare the state of the room with pictures he had taken on his cell phone, authorities said.

Although at one point Howard clambered onto a desk and chair and managed to disable a camera lens near a ceiling panel, investigators said they had many surveillance images showing him stealing mail, the affidavit said.

The items included knives, gun parts, prescription pill vials containing tablets and jewelry - including a "Joan Rivers Classics Collection" box containing a note signed by the comedienne and a large chain necklace with a multicolored circular pendant, authorities said.

At one point in July, after being notified by an employee about loose mail containing what was suspected to be marijuana, Howard took the marijuana and other mail, including passports and "collectable 1980s-era Playboy magazines," the affidavit said.

Investigators found coin wrappers that they had photographed at the San Jose facility in the trash at his home, authorities said.

Howard has been one of the postal service's most respected inspectors.

In 2007, he was a witness in San Francisco Superior Court against then-Supervisor Ed Jew and testified that mail carriers delivered Jew's regular mail to Burlingame while mostly junk mail went to the San Francisco home on 28th Avenue where he had claimed to have lived to run for office.

In 2012, he was named "Federal Employee of the Year" by the San Francisco Bay Area Federal Executive Board, which coordinates federal agencies in the region.

He was recognized for his "responsiveness in dealing with the media on issues involving criminal and hazardous situations," according to a board newsletter. "In handling a recent sensitive issue, he provided advice dealing with aggressive media calls to frame the story depicting the Postal Service as protecting the rights of individuals and the mail."