Ex-Dayton postal worker accused of stealing packages: ‘I blame the post office for influencing me’

One of the two ex-Dayton post office workers who allegedly stole packages with drugs and sold them for money said he shouldn’t be singled out because others workers do the same thing.

“The whole post office, everybody steals drugs … ,” Desmen A. Pauley said Tuesday outside Dayton’s U.S. District Courthouse, where he is scheduled to be arraigned and plead Friday. “So, ain’t no reason we should be caught.”

Pauley and Tyler O. Oder, who both worked at the U.S. Postal Service’s distribution center at 1111 E. Fifth St., have both agreed to bills of information for stealing narcotics. Oder pleaded guilty in April and is to be sentenced July 17.

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Pauley, who started working at the post office in 2012, said he didn’t regret taking the drug packages.

“I blame the post office for influencing me,” Pauley said.

“It’s the post office’s fault. They know drug mail is coming through, and they was letting me get away with it for the longest (time). Things started going awry, and the post office put it all on me and the post office don’t get in trouble. I’m just not getting that.”

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Anthony VanNoy, Pauley’s attorney, said Tuesday he was unaware his client was going to speak about the case.

Pauley and Oder were accused in a federal criminal complaint of ripping open Priority Mail packages they suspected included drugs and keeping marijuana and meth found inside.

“It’s been stinking. It smells in the package,” Pauley said . “You could just pick the whole package up and walk out with the whole package and get away with it. Nobody said a word.”

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Court documents indicated investigators found 12 pounds of suspected marijuana, one pound of suspected meth and two handguns at Pauley’s residence. They also said 15 pounds of suspected marijuana and $15,000 in cash were found at Oder’s residence.

Pauley said drugs in the mail is “never going to stop, and his advice for people is to wrap their packages better because “anybody can go through it.”

Pauley also said the whole post office needs to change.

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“All the employees are messed up,” he said.

Pauley said mail is often mishandled and does not get where it is intended.

“The post office is just very sloppy. Anybody can work there,” Pauley said. “The post office needs to be charged for this.”

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