A postal worker rooted through years of mail looking for cash, credit cards and checks before burning and burying piles of envelopes in her yard with the help of family members, authorities said.

The mail was headed to Durham, Orange and Alamance counties. When Alamance County sheriff's investigators searched Sandra G. Wilson's Mebane home they found a backhoe nearby. They commandeered it, and mail spilled from the first scoop of front-yard dirt, said Randy Jones, a spokesman for the Alamance County Sheriff's Office. Investigators recovered two dozen bins of letters, paychecks and credit card bills inside and outside the home, some dating to 2003.

"We have bags and bags and bales of mail," Jones said. "Some of them are still deliverable, and the post office will still deliver them."

Wilson, 47, of 2175-A Turner Road, her son, and four others face charges in an operation that investigators say pilfered everything from insurance cards to students' graduation money. Wilson, a 10-year letter carrier who worked out of the Hillsborough post office, was arrested and brought to the Alamance County Jail on May 10. She was released on $10,000 bail the same day, according to arrest reports. She was arrested again May 11 and released the same day on a $5,000 bond. She faces six charges related to the case.

Investigators broke the case when deputies questioned Wilson's son, Lennie Samuel Wilson Jr., in connection with theft and drug cases. They talked to his family also, Jones said. Those conversations led them to believe that Lennie Wilson was involved with stolen mail, which led investigators to Sandra Wilson's house, Jones said. The front yard had been freshly dug, Jones said.

At the home of Wilson's daughter and son-in-law, deputies found more mail, he said.

The volume of mail could keep investigators busy for a long time.

"We are prepared to be looking for potential follow-ups in a year from now," Jones said. "We just don't know how widespread it is."

Sheriff's investigators also charged five other people:

* Lennie Wilson Jr., 22, of 2246 Farrell Road, Lot B, Mebane, was charged with being an accessory after the fact of a felony and possession of stolen property. He already faced a series of drug, breaking and entering, and other charges. He is being held in Alamance County Jail under a $261,300 bond.

* Jordan Casey Wilson, 21, who investigators think is Lennie Wilson's wife, was charged with being an accessory after the fact of a felony and possession of cocaine. She was released from Alamance County Jail on May 19 on a $1,000 bond.

* Samuel Armstrong Wilson, 70, of 2175-A Turner Road, Mebane, who investigators think is Sandra Wilson's boyfriend, was charged with felonious possession of property, and accessory after the fact of breaking and entering of a motor vehicle. He was arrested May 10 and freed on a $6,000 bond. He was arrested again May 11 and freed on a $5,000 bond.

* Sandra Wilson's daughter and son-in-law -- Shannon Davis, 27, and Kevin Craig Davis, 30, of 724 Morton Drive in Burlington -- were also charged with being accessories after the fact of a felony. Shannon Davis was arrested May 14 and freed on a $15,000 bond. Kevin Davis was arrested the same day and freed on a $20,000 bond.

After the arrests, neighbors began to suspect that they had been victims.

Archie Wilborn Jr. lives near Wilson's home on Turner Road in Mebane. He said he didn't know her but sometimes saw her in her postal vehicle.

In February, Wilborn was expecting to receive health insurance cards in the mail. They never came.

"I just assumed that for whatever reason, they might have gotten misplaced," Wilborn said. "It worries me that somebody can just, I guess, just go through your private stuff."

Wilborn, 48, got replacement cards and let it go. When he heard about Wilson's arrest, he figured he had solved the mystery.

Wilborn's brother lives up the road. A few months ago, his brother got a call from a credit-card company that was concerned about what appeared to be fraudulent purchases. After Wilson was charged, he began to wonder whether it was related to the Wilson case, Wilborn said.