By Brandon Fey, News Editor
Gettysburg College received a mysterious influx of missing package reports throughout the last school year. Several students expecting packages reported having never received their items from the Campus Post Office after having ordered them to be shipped via the United States Postal Service.
One junior student at the College was disheartened to discover that a package sent to her by her aunt containing towels and a Stanley cup had never made it to Campus.
“I only received the package with just the towels; the one containing the Stanley never made it to my possession,” she said. “After confirming with my aunt that both packages had been marked as delivered I went to speak with an employee of the Campus Post Office, who told me that they never received that package on my behalf even though the Gettysburg Post Office listed it as delivered. They [Gettysburg USPS] told me they had delivered the package and the issue was with the College post office.”
The College had not previously encountered an issue like this, prompting Executive Director of Auxiliary Services Michael Bishop to contact the Gettysburg borough’s USPS, where many packages are delivered to campus. This local office then appealed to the regional postmaster at the Harrisburg office, where packages for this area are first distributed. At this point, a postal inspector was assigned to the case to uncover the source of the missing items.
The inspector employed a variety of tactics in an effort to find the culprit. These included shipping “tracking packages” which contained tracking devices that are meant to be stolen. The inspector also installed a security camera inside the Gettysburg Post Office. After collecting several decoys and reviewing thousands of hours of security footage without a clue, some were beginning to question whether the missing packages had been delivered to the Gettysburg office at all.
The Gettysburg Times posted an article on Aug. 23, 2024 reporting that their publisher, Harry Hartman, had been suspended by the newspaper’s parent organization, the Sample News Group. The announcement was made a day after Hartman notified the organization that he faced imminent indictment on federal mail theft charges.
In the article, Sample News Group Chairman George Sample said that the company will “support [Hartman] and his family as they work through this serious matter.”
The postal inspector confirmed that an arrest had been made in the case, describing the perpetrator as a “contractor” — someone hired to transport mail who was not a post office employee.
The inspector later proposed that because The Gettysburg Times sends its printed papers in the mail as opposed to direct delivery, it is possible that Hartman may have taken the packages as he was dropping off newspaper shipments at the back of the post office.
Several of the investigation’s details remain confidential and it remains an ongoing case as of October. The authorities are working to find the number of packages that were stolen, as several had been found inside his residence following his indictment. Investigators are also attempting to locate items Hartman may have already sold either online or through personal interaction.
Gettysburg College students whose missing packages may be among those Hartman had taken will have to wait until his trial concludes before they can finally receive them, as all stolen items will be held in evidence in the meantime.
“As a student with many other concerns on my plate, I should not have to be worried about packages that my family is sending as a show of care to be stolen,” the student said.
Bishop requested a list of these items for the College but has not received a response. It is uncertain how long the process will take, as mail theft is a federal offense for which no local court records will be available. The number of missing packages is also not publicly known.
“We are working to return any missing items to students,” said Bishop. “If possible, we will return whatever packages we can.”
Hartman’s arrest came 18 months after the issue began at the College. As the Campus Post Office is currently in its high-volume fall season, it has now reported a drastic reduction in missing packages as compared to the same time last year before Hartman was discovered.
A later Gettysburg Times article posted on Sept. 6 stated that Hartman had been replaced on Sept. 1 by Kelly Luvison as the newspaper’s publisher. Luvison has substantial experience in community journalism having served as president of the Sample News Group’s north newspaper division for the past 16 years and plans to continue current operating procedures while expanding commercial printing at the company’s Gettysburg facility.
The College encourages students who are missing packages to file a claim with the USPS. If they are not found, insurance claims can be filed if the packages were insured. None of the stolen packages have been delivered to Gettysburg College and all such items were shipped exclusively through USPS.
“My aunt and I were glad to hear the College administration was working with a postal inspector to get to the root of the problem, but it was disheartening that through this whole process the most we could do was make a claim for my aunt to get her money back instead of actually receiving the stolen materials,” said the student.
This article originally appeared on page 10 of the No. 2 October 2024 edition of The Gettysburgian magazine.
