BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- A German postal worker admitted auctioning packages over the Internet after a search of his apartment turned up a hoard of missing deliveries, police said Thursday.

The 37-year-old letter carrier, whose identity was not released, started keeping packages and offering their contents on online auction site eBay last summer, police said. In all, more than 100 went missing, and police estimated the value at $23,700.

While the German post office noticed that packages frequently went missing on his route, it was unable to prove what was happening until there was a complaint from a musician whose awaited clarinet mouthpiece never showed.

After the package failed to arrive, he found an identical item on eBay -- offered by the postman, from the western town of Gelsenkirchen. He bought it, but also informed police.

Police found the missing mouthpiece at the apartment of the postman's girlfriend and then searched his flat -- turning up piles of missing packages.

Source

**no longer trusts mailmen**

I wish he'd auction my bills away.

Germany... Again!