Jury duty’s a pain for most people, but this postal worker turned it into a four-and-a-half month paid vacation.

Joseph Winstead, a postal worker in Washington, D.C., had to serve on a jury in an extended federal trial, so the government paid him his usual salary while he was away from work.

During the few days that the jury was excused, Winstead didn’t report to his normal duties as a mail processor yet continued to receive payment from the government.

So, when Winstead was excused from the jury before deliberations began, he decided to keep the information from his supervisor and remained on his “paid vacation” for the remainder of the trial.

In the end, Winstead played hooky for a total of 144 days, collecting nearly $40,000 in unearned wages from the government. (Actually, there was some work involved — he had to fabricate court paperwork to support his reimbursement claims for the 20-odd weeks he was at home.)

Ready for the part where the supervisor notices something amiss and Winstead gets in trouble?

It didn’t happen for years. The original trial was in 2003, but in 2006, Winstead was called for jury duty again. He decided to press his luck even further, considering how well it’d panned out for him previously.

That’s when the supervisor finally caught on. Winstead plead guilty in a fraud case — ironically, it was in the same federal courthouse where he was supposed to have served so much jury time. He’s likely to be given a prison sentence of 8 to 14 months.

When asked how such a glaring error could have gone unchecked, U.S. Postal Service spokesman Gerald McKiernan said the Service was “glad the fraud was detected. The system worked.”

So, fool USPS once, shame on you. Fool them twice … well, the shame’s still on Winstead, apparently.

Tags: fraud, Government workers, Jury Duty, Postal Service, Reimbursements, Vacation