A South Korean mailman recently received a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, for dumping 16,003 pieces of mail due to stress from an excessive amount of work, a court said Thursday.

The 37-year-old defendant surnamed Lee, who was delivering mail in Gangseo-gu, western Seoul, was found to have discarded the mail between January 2021 and September 2022. The Seoul Southern District Court found Lee guilty of violating the Postal Service Act, Article 48 of which stipulates that any person engaging in postal services who damages or abandons postal items without justifiable cause can be punished by up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 50 million won ($22,600).

Lee told officials that he committed the crime because of the stress of being overworked, which derived from his colleagues being subject to isolation after being diagnosed with COVID-19 during the pandemic. Lee was fired from his job after his crimes came to light.