Ex-Postal Worker Gets Nearly 5 Years for Planting Fake Bomb

A former Antelope Valley postal worker was sentenced Friday to nearly five years in state prison after he pleaded guilty to planting a fake bomb at a Lancaster post office and threatening his former supervisor.

Jeffrey Dale Peitz, 47, of Quartz Hill faced up to 12 years in prison for six incidents from Dec. 29, 2000, to Feb. 12, 2003, in which fake bombs were placed in Antelope Valley post offices. Instead, he pleaded guilty to one count each of threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction and making a criminal threat, said Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Blake.

On Sept. 11, 2002, the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Peitz placed a large shoe box at the post office where he once worked, Blake said. On the outside of the box, which was filled with ground soap, was a crude drawing of a bomb exploding at the World Trade Center.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David S. Wesley sentenced Peitz to four years and eight months.

In 1995, Peitz was tried three times for murder in connection with the death of his wife, Teri, who had been shot to death the previous year, Blake said. The juries in all three trials deadlocked, and the case remains open.

Peitz, who began working for the U.S. Postal Service in 1991, was reinstated after the third trial, Blake said.

Peitz resigned from his position as a letter carrier in 2000, pending an investigation of suspected mail theft. He eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft and was placed on probation, Blake said.