Three times this summer, someone stuffed feces into pre-paid donation envelopes and mailed them back to Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany's campaign for Wisconsin governor. Federal investigators say the hazardous mailings arrived on July 20, July 27 and August 10, and postal inspectors have now traced them to a home in Kewaskum, a small Washington County village northwest of Milwaukee.
Federal investigators confirmed that the feces was sent to Tiffany’s gubernatorial campaign, according to FOX6 News Milwaukee. Details in an unsealed federal search warrant request, reported by The Heartland Post, describe messages written on the envelopes, including “OPEN! OPEN!” on the first and “SURPRISE [expletive]!” on the second.
How Postal Barcodes Cracked the Case
The warrant materials, as reported by The Heartland Post, say the sender cut the printed recipient name and address from pre-addressed return envelopes that Tiffany’s campaign sends to prospective donors. Postal inspectors used internal postal barcodes and images in a U.S. Postal Inspection Service database to trace the altered envelopes to a Kewaskum home. The home belongs to relatives of the intended recipient of the original mailings, who died in 2024.
A mail-industry guide describes Intelligent Mail barcodes as part of postal tracking. The warrant reporting says inspectors relied on barcode data and images in a U.S. Postal Inspection Service database to trace the envelopes even after the visible address had been removed, according to the mail-industry guide.
Search Warrants Executed, No Charges Filed
Federal postal inspectors have since obtained search warrants to collect DNA and fingerprint samples from a man and a woman who live at the Kewaskum home, the report states. As of mid-October, however, federal officials had not filed formal criminal charges against either resident, and news organizations have withheld their names because no charges have been brought.
Kewaskum itself is a village of roughly 4,600 residents, according to World Population Review, in Washington County. Mailing hazardous or nonmailable items through the Postal Service is a federal crime; under 18 U.S.C. § 1716, deliberate hazardous mailings can carry fines and up to 20 years in federal prison depending on intent and harm caused, according to the federal statute.
Campaign Calls Incident Disgusting
Tiffany’s campaign called the incident disgusting and said the stunts require postal workers to handle biohazardous materials, FOX6 News Milwaukee reported.
Postal guidance and hazardous-mail investigations
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s mail-center security guidance recommends training staff in procedures for biological and chemical incidents. The agency’s 2024 annual report discusses hazardous materials sent through the mail.
Tiffany, who has represented Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District since 2020, is running for governor against Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. A Marquette University Law School poll reported a closely contested race.
The investigation remains open, and the central unresolved question is whether forensic analysis of the DNA and fingerprint evidence collected from the Kewaskum residents will produce a match sufficient to support formal federal charges. For now, search warrants have been executed, but no one has been named as a defendant.
