A Jersey City womanarrested in 2022 when she showed up at the Hudson County Sheriff’s Office looking for security guard job while she was wanted on multiple warrants is now facing federal charges.
Zyeama Johnson — who apparently was unaware 18 months ago that sheriff’s officers specialize in warrants or that they would perform a background check — has been charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office with burglarizing two U.S. post offices in Jersey City six times between Jan. 10 and Feb. 7, 2023, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.
The 29-year-old Johnson, a former postal employee who worked in Jersey City, appeared Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cathy Waldor in Newark federal court and was released on $100,000 unsecured bond.
When Johnson was arrested on Feb. 7 after breaking into a postal facility, police found 38 debit and credit cards in the names of 36 people inside her car, the criminal complaint said.
A search of one of her mobile devices revealed that she had messaged another person attempting to sell credit cards for approximately $50 to $300 each, the complaint said. She had also attempted to sell a bank statement, authorities alleged.
Johnson, who had been fired from her post office job, broke into a Jersey City post office on Jan. 10, Jan. 13, Jan. 21, Jan. 26 and Feb. 3, 2023, stole boxes of mail and then drove off, said authorities, who reviewed surveillance footage of the thefts. It appeared from the videos that Johnson had electronic access to the post offices.
Each count of burglary carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
Johnson’s postal facility crime spree started just three months after she was arrested by Hudson County sheriff’s officers and sent back to Pennsylvania to face justice.
Johnson was wanted by authorities in Monroe County, Pennsylvania for failure to appear in court on charges of fraud and an additional 10 bench warrants for failure to appear in court on traffic charges in Jersey City when she applied for the position with the sheriff’s office in early October 2022.
After the validity of the warrants was confirmed, Johnson was called in under the impression it was for a job interview and she was taken into custody. During the routine search following her arrest, sheriff’s officers discovered that she was in possession of two credit cards believed to be stolen.
