Two 18-year-olds plead guilty to robbing USPS workers across DFW
DALLAS - Two 18-year-old men pleaded guilty to a string of robberies targeting postal workers all over the metroplex.
The two men were tracked down back in April after committing a robbery at an apartment complex in Fort Worth.
They were already on the radar of investigators due to cell phone information.
On April 18, the two were picked up in a traffic stop and had a USPS master key in their possession.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced two 18-year-old men, Jerrad Coleman and Louis Dixon, pleaded guilty to a string of robberies against mail carriers in the DFW area.
The two were arrested and booked into the White Settlement jail and then transferred to Johnson County.
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The brazen encounters are happening in broad daylight in neighborhoods that some letter carriers have been servicing for years. One Dallas carrier said he had a gun pointed in his face while delivering mail to a busy apartment complex.
U.S. Postal Inspector Sean Smith says Coleman and Dixon are linked to eight robberies over the course of four months.
"Those who think they could get away with this, just don’t do it," he said. "That’s our message. Just don’t do it."
The first robbery took place on January 17 and another on January 18 in Fort Worth.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service put out reward flyers with surveillance photos from those crimes.
Investigators say Coleman and Dixon worked together to commit the same crimes against mail carriers in Dallas, Arlington and Frisco.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the two often robbed the mail carriers at gunpoint of their "arrow key," a master key to open up collection boxes.
"When this rise in crime occurred, what we did was we combatted that with an initiative, and it has been successful," Smith said.
The initiative is called Safe Delivery. It started in May 2023 and includes adding electronic locks to collection boxes and deploying high-security blue collection boxes.
"That arrow key is something that’s valuable. And with the security standards that we’re putting out there, it’s devaluing the arrow key," explained Smith.
The uptick in crime against postal service workers left employees scared.
In February, mail carriers in the DFW area protested for additional safety measures.
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Smith hopes the recent guilty pleas send a message.
"The message we want to send is we’re out here, we’re investigating, we’re going to continue to investigate these crimes," he said. "We’re going to leave no stone unturned."
Smith also wants to remind people to keep a watchful eye over their neighborhood mail carrier.
"If you see something suspicious, something that just doesn’t make sense or fit in the picture of the mail carrier, or someone's following the carrier, it doesn’t hurt to add those extra eyes to the carrier," he said.
Local and federal law enforcement agencies also helped in the investigations.
Coleman and Dixon face up to 15 years in federal prison for their crimes.