A Minneapolis man received an 11-year prison sentence for robbing letter carriers in Edina and Brooklyn Center at gunpoint in an aim to obtain their work keys in order to steal mail, checks and other items.
Rubin David Adams, 28, was handed his prison term by U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud at the federal courthouse in St. Paul after previously pleading guilty to armed robbery in connection with the holdups that took place over a two-day period in November 2023. Adams’ prison time will be followed by five years on supervised release. He was also ordered to pay nearly $78,000 in restitution.
“The United States Postal Service is a vital institution to our country. People will stop trusting the mail if they believe it will be stolen. And people will stop applying to be mail carriers if they believe they will be victims of violence,” Tostrud said during sentencing, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
According to court documents, on Nov. 18, Adams drove with another person to Edina and parked an SUV in front of a mail truck. The accomplice approached the postal worker, pointed a handgun and demanded the “mailbox key.” Having none, the employee gave over two sets of United States Postal Service vehicle keys.
The following day, Adams himself carried out another robbery in Brooklyn Center, this time making off with two mailbox keys.
Mailbox keys can be used to steal mail, cash, checks and other financial methods.
Prosecutors allege Adams used the keys to carry out a check fraud scheme by stealing mail from dozens of collection boxes across the Twin Cities and using the stolen mail to write forged checks. Days after the Brooklyn Center robbery, a video emerged on Facebook depicting Adams flashing 15 checks spread over a countertop.
Police traced the theft to Adams using surveillance footage and license plate readers in Brooklyn Center and arrested him Nov. 29, 2023. At the time of his arrest, he was on pretrial release for felony financial transaction and identity theft charges out of Georgia. He was also on probation for charges out of Fulton County, Georgia, related to convictions of receiving stolen property, possession of a firearm during a felony, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and six misdemeanor offenses.
