A federal judge sentenced a homeless man Tuesday to 21 months in prison for breaking into and stealing mail from post office boxes at the downtown post office on Merchant Street.

In addition to the prison sentence, Senior U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway ordered Richard Cui to pay $5,571 in restitution, most of it to the U.S. Postal Service for the damage he caused to more than three dozen boxes between May and August 2018.

Cui, 50, a career criminal who spent most of his adult life in prison, pleaded guilty to mail theft in December. He said he gave the mail he stole to others in exchange for drugs and money.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service started an investigation after numerous post office box customers complained of missing mail. Surveillance cameras recorded Cui using a screwdriver to pry open the box doors.

In January the USPIS arrested a second person accused of stealing mail from post office boxes at the Merchant Street post office. A federal grand jury later returned an indictment charging Sean Vincent Kim with stealing mail on 12 different occasions last November. Kim is scheduled to stand trial in September.

The USPIS said Honolulu police recovered stolen mail in Kim’s Kamehameha Heights apartment when they raided it as part of a credit card fraud investigation. Among the mail police found are nine checks totaling $48,163 made out to Make-A-Wish Hawaii as well as checks to businesses and a political campaign committee.