USPS supervisor, husband charged with stealing $8K watch in mail

USPS supervisor, husband charged with stealing $8K watch in mail

By Charlie Langton
Published November 28, 2017
FOX 2 Detroit

 

DETROIT (WJBK) – A U.S. postal worker and her husband are accused of intercepting thousands of dollars in jewelry and then selling it at a Metro Detroit pawn shop.

Kewein Skinner and his wife, Shantaina, were arrested for intercepting a Patek Phillippe watch worth $8,000. According to a federal complaint, Shantaina works as a supervisor at the US Post Office and knew an Express Mail parcel contained the very rare watch.

After stealing it, authorities said she gave it to her husband who then tried to pawn it at the Motor City Pawn Brokers in Roseville. Dany Kourieh manages the store and knew something was up when Kewein brought it in in August.

“It’s a Patek Phillippe watch. We don’t get those in here but it’s a beautiful watch,” he said.”We did take the serial number, we took the model number and we took it to the police department who were able to contact the feds that day.”

The pawnshop even got a thumb print from this guy which is what the law says pawn shops have to do.

That’s not all they’re accused of stealing though. Feds claim she also stole a check written for $25,000 that was supposed to go to a Southfield jewelry store.

Skinner is known to authorities. He spent almost 20 years in prison for second-degree murder.

So how were the feds able to track this watch? When the pawnshop makes a deal, they can’t do anything with the items for 10 days. Kourieh says of all the stuff brought to the shop, only about one percent is stolen. The watch had a serial number that was in the state pawn database

Investigators said they watched the Skinners and Shantaina would take trips back and forth to her personal vehicle. They shipped a test parcel that was equipped with GPS which they said she never dropped off the Oak Park Post Office, where it was supposed to go.

When confronted by authorities, they said she admitted to the theft of the watch and that her husband had pawned.