A U.S. Postal Service supervisor who worked in Costa Mesa was sentenced to a year of home confinement in federal court on Friday for stealing checks worth about $284,000 and other goods worth up to $40,000.
Joivian Tijuana Hayes, 36, of Compton, supervised the Costa Mesa post office on Adams Avenue when she was accused of stealing mail, according to federal prosecutors. Hayes pleaded guilty Feb. 7, 2025, to one count of mail by a postal service employee and one count of unlawful transfer, possession and use of means of identification.
Hayes was sentenced to a year and a day in home confinement and ordered to pay $68,442 in restitution.
In 2024, she stole mail from the post office that included checks she deposited into her own bank accounts by forging signatures on the checks, according to her plea agreement.
Hayes stole at least 20 checks worth about $284,000, and took about $3,000 in postal money orders, prosecutors said.
Investigators found multiple gold coins and cash that been sent through the mail in her residence, prosecutors said. She stole a dollar bill issued in 1917 bearing a sticky note saying it was worth $675, a $100 bill from 1914 worth about $1,500 and a $10 Confederate bill, prosecutors said.
Authorities also recovered a $5 gold piece bearing a sticky note listing its value at $1,600, prosecutors said. Agents searching her bedroom found a U.S. Treasury check for $2,599 that was intended to be sent to an address in Costa Mesa, prosecutors said.
The worth of the stolen mail was about $304,000 to $324,288, prosecutors said.