Probation for man who posted cat poo to businesses that didn't give him a job

Rather than simply grumble to himself or complain to others, a St. Louis man aggrieved that a number of businesses had decided not to employ him took a different approach. Jevons Brown packaged up cat faeces and sent them through the mail.

Brown, 58, was sentenced on Friday to two years of probation after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of mailing injurious articles. The plea says Brown, a veteran, became frustrated with his lack of employment opportunities and lashed out at employees of companies that failed to hire him.



U.S. Postal Inspection Service spokesman Dan Taylor said that investigators tracked 20 similar packages to Brown. “This is not a victimless crime,” Assistant U.S. Attorney John Bodenhausen said in court, later explaining that he meant postal workers and the people whose mail was adjacent to Brown's packages, in addition to the employees that received them.

Both Bodenhausen and Sean Vicente, Brown's public defender, agreed that probation was an appropriate sentence, saying Brown had recently found a job and had almost no criminal history. Federal sentencing guidelines recommended probation or up to six months in prison. Brown apologized in court, vowing, “I'm sorry. This will never happen again.” He has been getting counselling, and said that prayer and church had also been helping.