14 DAY TRIAL // Just a few days ago we looked at the lawsuit Gamefly is currently fighting against the United States Postal Service regarding preferential sorting treatment. Apparently, some post offices have special mail slots for Netflix and Blockbuster, which would reduce the chances that a product will be damaged during transit, treatment that Gamefly products don't receive and a large amount of their deliveries end up in the hands of their buyers damaged and unusable.
Things really seem to turn into a conspiracy theory with Gamefly as another piece of the puzzle is revealed in their legal area of existence. A former United States postal worker, Reginald Johnson, confessed stealing over 2,200 GameFly shipments. The Gamefly products were meant to be delivered in or around Philadelphia, but never got to see their original buyers. At the time of the arrest, the 34-year-old man was working as a truck unloader and was apprehended due to a covert surveillance operation of the mail processing center he was part of. The incident first caught the authorities’ eye in late 2007, when the Postal Service's Inspector General noticed all the missing Gamefly rentals.
Between April and September 2008, Johnson stole from Gamefly around $86,000 worth of video games, some of which he handed over to GameStop for what must have been a record-breaking store credit. The arrest itself turned out to be a real parody, as the game-fencing criminal proved to be unable to complete the “escape from the police” mission and drop his wanted level. When faced by law enforcement, Reginald made a run for his SUV in an attempt to outrun his pursuers. Everything ended very soon, after the runaway crashed his vehicle and ended up being apprehended on foot.
From his SUV and the duffel bag he dropped while running, the police recovered 160 Gamefly packages that should have otherwise been delivered to those who had ordered the games. Reginald Johnson's sentencing is scheduled for January 13, 2010 and he could receive between 12 and 18 months in prison. No rain or snow or sleet or hail could stop the mail man, but it looks like the police proved to be an impassable obstacle for Reginald Johnson.