The government keeps telling us they’re here to protect us from scammers and criminals.
But what happens when the person supposed to be catching the bad guys is actually the worst criminal of all?
And a postal worker lived like a king while elderly Americans got robbed blind by one disgusting scheme that will make your blood boil.
The fox was literally guarding the henhouse
Scott Kelley had the perfect job for a crook – he was the team leader of the US Postal Inspection Service’s Mail Fraud Unit.
His job was supposed to be catching scammers who targeted vulnerable Americans, especially elderly folks who fall victim to lottery and sweepstakes cons.
Instead, this 51-year-old Massachusetts man was running his own personal theft operation that puts most street criminals to shame.
For years, Kelley pulled off one of the most heartless schemes you’ll ever hear about.
When elderly Americans – average age 75 – got conned by Jamaican lottery scammers and mailed cash hoping to claim fake prizes, Kelley made sure those packages never made it to the crooks.
But he wasn’t protecting the victims.
He was stealing their money for himself.
The Department of Justice hit Kelley with a 45-count indictment that reads like a manual for betraying public trust.¹
Between 2019 and 2023, this guy requested nearly 2,000 packages be sent to him personally, then pocketed over $330,000 in cash that desperate seniors had scraped together.²
Living it up on grandma’s life savings
Here’s where this story gets really disgusting.
While 82-year-old Americans were losing their retirement money – some sending as much as $19,100 to scammers – Kelley was living like he’d won the lottery himself.
He spent $15,400 on escorts, sometimes meeting them during work hours.³
Another $30,188 went to fancy swimming pool renovations, complete with new lighting and a granite countertop for his outdoor bar.⁴
Oh, and don’t forget the $4,300 Caribbean cruise he treated himself to.⁵
This wasn’t some spur-of-the-moment crime of opportunity.
Kelley ran a sophisticated money laundering operation, washing nearly $340,000 by buying postal money orders and spreading over 60 deposits across four different bank accounts.⁶
He even had the nerve to meet with one victim face-to-face and tell them their package wasn’t found – then blamed the victim for being stupid enough to mail cash.⁷
None of those elderly Americans ever got their money back.
Not a single penny.
The deeper betrayal nobody’s talking about
But wait, it gets worse.
Kelley wasn’t content just stealing from scam victims.
He used another postal inspector’s key – someone who reported directly to him – to steal $7,000 from an evidence locker.⁸
Then he blamed that employee for the theft.
Think about that for a second.
This guy destroyed a fellow worker’s career to cover his own crimes.
The postal worker was probably investigated, maybe lost their job, definitely had their reputation ruined – all so Kelley could afford another weekend with his escorts.
Look, here’s what this story really shows about the state of our government.
We’ve got federal agencies supposedly protecting Americans from fraud, but the people running these departments are often the biggest crooks of all.
This wasn’t some low-level mail carrier pocketing a few dollars.
This was the team leader – the guy in charge of the entire fraud investigation unit – systematically robbing elderly Americans for four straight years.
You want to know what else should make you furious?
The US Postal Inspection Service has been around since 1772, making it one of America’s oldest law enforcement agencies.
These people have badges, guns, and arrest powers.
They’ve got a $2 billion budget and offices in every major city.
All that taxpayer money, all that authority, all that trust – and this is what we get?
A department head who’s literally stealing Christmas money from grandparents?
The really sick part is how the system was supposed to work.
When postal workers intercepted packages from scam victims, they were required to count the money with a witness present and mail the victim a check for the full amount.⁹
Instead, Kelley made sure those packages came straight to him where he could pocket the cash with nobody watching.
For four years, this guy had complete control over who got their money back and who didn’t.
And every single time, he chose himself.
The government will never admit the real problem here
Now Kelley faces up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud, money laundering, and mail fraud charges.¹⁰
Good.
But here’s what nobody in Washington wants to talk about – this isn’t an isolated incident.
This is what happens when you give people government badges and tell them they’re the good guys while providing zero real oversight.
How many other Scott Kelleys are out there right now, stealing from the very people they’re supposed to protect?
How many elderly Americans are getting scammed twice – once by foreign criminals, then again by their own government?
The Department of Justice will prosecute Kelley and act like justice is served.
But they’ll never ask the harder questions about why a fraud unit supervisor could steal hundreds of thousands of dollars over four years without anybody noticing.
They’ll never explain how a guy making a government salary could afford $30,000 pool renovations and regular escort services without raising red flags.
And they’ll certainly never admit that maybe – just maybe – we’ve got too many federal law enforcement agencies with too much power and too little accountability.
Seven elderly Americans trusted their government to protect them from scammers.
Instead, they got robbed by both the criminals and the cops.
That’s not a bug in the system.
That’s exactly how the system works.
¹ Brie Stimson, "Ex-Postal fraud investigator stole more than $330K from elderly scam victims to pay for home renovations and escorts: DOJ," Fox News, August 31, 2025.
