A former postman who pleaded guilty to stealing $2.50 from an envelope should be ordered to clean up his neighborhood with a ``broom, dustbin and plastic sack,'' a federal judge recommended. U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Higgins on Thursday also ordered Leon Watson, 33, to repay $315 that a January indictment charged he removed from envelopes carried on his route. Watson pleaded guilty to one count in a plea bargain calling for a maximum prison sentence of three years. That count charged him with stealing $2.50 from an envelope planted in a mailbox by U.S. Postal Service officials, who became suspicious of Watson after residents complained that they had received envelopes that were supposed to contain money but did not. ``I want Mr. Watson to become a custodian,'' Higgins said. ``He should be given a broom, dustbin and plastic sack and be made to keep good and clean'' parks and other public property near his home as community service work, the judge said. Higgins also ordered Watson to perform 300 hours of community service work and gave him a three-year suspended sentence.
