A Philly man who robbed two postal workers and stole packages was sentenced to federal prison
James Chandler was sentenced to 21 years and 10 months in federal prison for robbing two mail carriers
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/pmn/ZS456IWHNFC7FOJ3BBKR37UNBE.jpg)
A Philadelphia man who robbed two postal workers, kidnapped one of them, and stole packages addressed to others, was sentenced to federal prison Tuesday.
James Chandler, 55, who pleaded guilty to robbery and other crimes in September, was sentenced to 21 years and 10 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release.
“Targeting and violently assaulting employees of the United States Postal Service is a serious federal crime,” acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said in a statement. “Mr. Chandler terrorized two postal workers at gunpoint, and he will now spend decades behind bars for his actions.”
The crimes occurred Jan. 11 and Feb. 4 of last year, when Chandler, using a fake handgun, forced the mail carriers into their postal trucks and made off with packages.
During the February robbery, Chandler also forced a worker to drive him for several blocks before fleeing on foot, Williams said.
The United States Postal Inspection Service, working with Philadelphia police, arrested Chandler several weeks after the second robbery. At that time, Damon Wood, a postal inspector in charge of the Philadelphia division, said Chandler had ransacked the mail trucks while looking for items he thought he could sell.