| A contract rural mail carrier from Millstone has been charged with a second offense, according to Spencer Newspapers.
Sonja Whipkey, 38, has been charged by the Spencer Police Department with a second count of fraud, related to the alleged theft of a $100 WalMart card belonging to Amy S. Bryant of Crummis Creek.
A police report says Whipkey was caught on video surveillance at the Spencer WalMart store using the card.
Whipkey had been charged earlier with the theft of a WalMart card from another customer on her mail route.
She has been arraigned by a Roane County magistrate and released on $10,000 bond. The US Postal System is conducting an investigation.
ORIGINAL STORY (11/11/05) A Calhoun contract mail carrier has been arrested by the Spencer Police Department after she allegedly stole a WalMart gift card from one of her customers and used it at the Spencer WalMart.
Sonja J. Whipkey, 38, of 11657 So. Calhoun Highway, Millstone, has been charged with a felony count of fraud and has been released on $10,000, waiting a preliminary hearing before a Spencer magistrate.
Whipkey allegedly took a $75 gift card mailed to Ted Black, a resident of Pup Run just off Henry's Fork in Calhoun, and purchased items at the Spencer WalMart, the transaction recorded on the store's security camera system.
When Spencer Police contacted Whipkey, she allegedly said she received the WalMart gift card from a Crummis Creek couple as a gift for helping them with their mail.
Black told the police and the Herald that about "four months ago something was going on with my mail, my letters and packages were getting opened and I was not receiving my magazines."
Black's Tennessee parents mailed him a $75 WalMart gift card. Not receiving it, he discovered that someone had used the card in the Spencer store.
Whipkey was already on administrative leave from the postal system when she was arrested. US Postal is conducting their own investigation into the matter.
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