Irmgard Castillo, of Poulsbo, put 10 $1 bills in a birthday card for her 5-year-old great-granddaughter last month and mailed it off in a bright-green envelope to the girl's home San Mateo, Calif.
The 82-year-old Castillo, who has been ill with cancer, said she sent the little stack of bills because her granddaughter "would think that it was a lot of money."
"I didn't have very much, and she's a little girl," she said.
But weeks went by and Castillo's great-granddaughter never called to thank her.
Castillo didn't know what happened to the card until federal investigators told her that fragments of the card — including a piece with her address — were found in the garbage of a Poulsbo Post Office custodian who is suspected of stealing cash from birthday and holiday cards traveling through the U.S. mail.
"Now [Castillo] understood why her great-granddaughter didn't call her to thank her for the card," an investigator wrote after interviewing the woman.
A federal search warrant unsealed in U.S. District Court in Tacoma last week details an investigation into the thefts, which included a postal "sting" that involved mailing a card equipped with a special transmitter to alert agents to tampering.
The investigation began after dozens of area residents complained to the Poulsbo postmaster about missing mail. In the first two months of this year, the postmaster told investigators, 42 customers had complained about approximately 94 greeting cards and letters missing from the mail. Most were sent from the post-office lobby drop-slot or the mailbox out front.
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