Design Crafters

It was an unorthodox but undeniably effective way to catch a thief: send him a Christmas card and leave the rest up to his conscience.

While it might sound like something out of a television sitcom, it really happened. The Brighton (U.K.) police tracked down a former postman who was accused of helping himself to cash and gift vouchers out of mail that he was to deliver, and sent him a Christmas card offering the chance to surrender to local authorities. The former postman, who had moved across the country and again to Scotland by that time, claimed to have never received court summons for the alleged thefts prior to the Christmas card, and was unaware that he was still wanted in connection to the crimes. Since the alleged thefts that took place in 2002, the former postman had married and become a father, begun a new career as a chef, and was in poor health in recent years.

Following receipt of the Christmas card (which suggested he contact the Brighton police to clear up the matter), the former postman did in fact surrender to authorities and, in the end, admitted to the postal thefts. The judge presiding over the matter found it quite extraordinary that the Christmas card was the means by which the accused postman was tracked down, and in the end handed down a suspended sentence of a 12-month prison term.