A Stamford post office employee is accused of stealing hundreds of pieces of mail from her workplace in a scheme that began at least a year ago and left victims across the country, according to police.

The police department’s Financial Crimes Unit began investigating a series of complaints about stolen checks in May 2022, checks that were mailed out from the post office on Camp Avenue but never made it to the intended destination. Investigators worked with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which is the law enforcement arm of the postal service.

“We had victims coming to us saying, ‘I'm nervous about putting mail in a box, so I actually walked into the lobby and put it in the wall. It still got stolen,’” recalled Investigator Sean Coughlin. The checks would then be forged with the amounts and recipients changed.

“We followed the checks. It led us to a series of bank accounts. The bank accounts were forwarding funds to a certain person,” Coughlin explained. That person was 33-year-old Kierra Blount, of Stamford, who worked at the Camp Avenue post office, according to police.

On Tuesday, investigators searched Blount's apartment and said they found a loaded 9 mm ghost gun, along with eight pages of names of potential victims and their personal information, multiple credit cards in the names of other people and checks that didn’t belong to Blount.

“We are looking at about 500 checks, and these are the ones that we know about,” Coughlin told News 12.

Blount was arrested and charged with risk of injury to a child and firearms offenses, along with unspecified federal charges due to what was found in her home. She posted $5,000 bond and is set to be arraigned in Stamford Superior Court July 3. Police also said as they go through everything they seized, more charges will be filed.

“The fact that a postal service employee has betrayed the trust not only the agency had in them but also that the public had in them is something we take seriously,” said David Reardon, assistant inspector in charge for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Boston division.

Reardon said Blount is now on leave pending an internal investigation.

She allegedly stole mail that was coming in and going out.

“We found checks from every state in the country almost with the exception of Alaska and Hawaii. We couldn't believe it,” Coughlin stated.

Police said they are still processing how much money was stolen. As the investigation moves forward, they expect to find additional suspects.

“We would hope that people understand that of the 650,000 postal service employees, having one person who's violated that trust should not be an indictment of the entire agency. The postal service and the U.S. mail is one of the safest ways to move personal communications throughout the country,” Reardon told News 12.

Police are trying to identify more victims in this case. If you think you could be one of them, call the Financial Crimes Unit at 203-977-4060 or the U.S. Postal Inspection Service at 1-877-876-2455.