Hilton Head postal worker guilty of mail theft takes plea deal, sentencing scheduled
The former employee at Hilton Head’s north-end post office who was arrested for alleged mail theft last fall has accepted a plea deal and now awaits sentencing in federal court.
Hardeeville resident Thylenthia Tobet Young, 44, pleaded guilty March 4 to one count of mail theft by a USPS employee. In exchange, South Carolina’s district court dismissed her two remaining counts of the federal offense. She was indicted on the three charges in mid-September but had maintained a not guilty plea until the agreement was introduced in early March.
Young resigned May 30, 2023 from the island’s Fairfield post office, located at 213 William Hilton Parkway. She worked as a rural carrier, meaning she sorted mail inside the office before departing on a delivery route across the island.
Charging documents accused Young of embezzling three pieces of mail, once in April and twice on May 30. Upon conviction, she would face $250,100 in fines, up to five years in prison and three years of supervised release — a federal equivalent of probation that requires defendants to take a series of drug tests and avoid future criminal charges, among other conditions.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 12 in a Charleston federal courtroom, according to public documents obtained through the PACER court reporting system. Young was released from custody in late September on a personal recognizance bond.
Although Young’s indictment does not specify what type of items were taken from the mail or their total value, emails obtained last summer from an Office of Inspector General official said she “threw away all checks” she embezzled and that the employee was once found with a stolen $100 Mastercard gift card.
As rumors of mail theft mounted on social media last summer, dozens of Hilton Head residents reported over $2,000 worth of missing cash, gift cards and other items to The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette. Islanders have also criticized the service’s local disorganization, citing slow routes and misplaced deliveries.
Widespread reports of missing USPS deliveries in Beaufort County have continued into 2024, suggesting the problem runs deeper than one aberrant employee. An Office of Inspector General spokesperson said Tuesday that there were no other open investigations into local postal employees, adding that potential victims can file a complaint at https://www.uspsoig.gov/hotline.
