Are USPS mail carriers consistently lured with cash on their routes as a test? TikTokers push longtime rumor

A woman on TikTok believes she uncovered something strange about the United States Postal Service: managers allegedly leave cash along delivery routes to see if mail carriers will pick it up.

“I’m gonna need someone to explain it to me”

“Hold on,” she says at the start of the video. “Did you know that post office employees… their managers… their bosses… literally will go on the routes that they’re supposed to take,” and plant $5 or $10 bills in the grass, the gutter, or along the sidewalk?

She claims the money is left intentionally by supervisors who then sit hidden in their cars nearby. “They are, like, stalking their employee,” she says, watching closely to see if they’ll grab the cash.

According to Tessa, this is all part of a strict rule: “No post office employee is allowed to touch cash on the job in uniform unless it’s being dropped off.”

That’s where she starts to lose patience. “I’m sorry, I’m gonna need someone to explain it to me like I’m a dumb***,” she says.

She questions how it could possibly harm the USPS for a worker to find “a couple bucks in the gutter,” especially if it’s dirty and obviously abandoned.

“That’s called entrapment,” she says. “Why are we trying to entrap the post office employees?”

She ends by asking, “Can I get some explanations?”

Is this actually true?

Sorry, but there’s no official evidence that USPS runs coordinated sting operations like this.

But the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch do prohibit USPS workers from accepting cash gifts from customers, so they’re trained to leave any money untouched unless it’s part of a delivery.

Still, the idea that managers plant cash as a “test” isn’t entirely new. On Reddit, users in the r/USPS forum have discussed similar claims.

“They’ll set you up if they have a suspicion you are stealing,” one user wrote. Another said they once saw cash left in a mounted mailbox and ignored it, assuming it was a trap.

“The post office leaves around bait money orders to see if employees will steal them,” someone else said. “And yes, some people do still try to cash them and still get caught.”

@tessa420_ #mail #postoffice #money #didyouknow #mailcarrier ♬ original sound – Tessa420

The Daily Dot has reached out to USPS via contact form to ask whether these practices are real.

In the comments under Tessa’s video, most users said the story checked out. Some said it’s all about maintaining control, while others thought the practice was ridiculous.

“It’s all about control, unfortunately,” one person wrote.

Another claimed there’s even a running joke about it. “There’s a joke among carriers that when we see something in a box that clearly isn’t for us, we say ‘not today, postal inspector’ as if it’s attempted entrapment lol.”

Some people had a different idea entirely: find the cash and keep it.

“All of us now following our postal carriers around looking for a free $5,” one user joked.

Then someone else chimed in with a personal story: “Well, someone better tell my workers, cause they open most of the birthday cards that I get.”

The Daily Dot has reached out to the USPS for comment.