2,200 GameFly games stolen by mailman

Philadelphia-area GameFly subscribers asking why their games keep going missing in the mail may have an answer. Local news site Philly.com is reporting that a former US Postal Service worker pleaded guilty to stealing more than 2,200 games from the Netflix-like, mail-based rental service.

Given the value of the mail theft, Reginald Johnson, 34 (not pictured), now faces 12 to 18 months in a federal prison. According to prosecutors, a surveillance operation found that the former mail handler stole $86,000 worth of games from April to September 2008. The operation, which used test mailings, was prompted by increasing reports of GameFly games going missing beginning in late 2007.

When the surveillance operation ended on September 5, 2008, federal agents moved in to arrest Johnson, who attempted to flee in his SUV before crashing it. Authorities recovered 160 GameFly envelopes from the vehicle, along with three Wii Fits, five "Nintendo Wii Sports" [sic], and an unspecified PlayStation console. Also inside the van were numerous receipts indicating that Johnson had been trading in games to local GameStop locations in exchange for consoles, according to his plea agreement.

The Philadelphia arrest hits GameFly closer to home than one might think. In 2007, the Los Angeles-based company opened a distribution center in Pennsylvania's second city, Pittsburgh, to improve service to the East Coast.

The thefts also aren't GameFly's only problem with the United States Postal Service. In April, the company filed a complaint with the Postal Regulatory Commission alleging that the USPS gives preferential treatment to Blockbuster and movie-by-mail service Netflix.