Updated

A former northern Iowa postmaster has been sentenced to probation and community service after pleading guilty to stealing narcotics from the mail.

Fifty-five-year-old Danny Miller, of Ventura, was sentenced Wednesday to two years of probation and ordered to serve 100 hours of community service. He pleaded guilty in January to one count of theft of mail by a postal service employee.

Federal prosecutors said Miller admitted that from about May 2013 through July 2014, he stole prescription painkillers from the mail. The Mason City Globe Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/1K6y7yW ) Miller told authorities he took the pills to help soothe his back pain.

Miller had been appointed Forest City postmaster in 2012 and also served as postmaster in Fertile.

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Information from: Globe Gazette, http://www.globegazette.com/