A UPS employee stole more than 60 electronic Apple products from a shipping facility by stuffing unopened packages into his pants, Fairfax County police said Tuesday.
While working as a sorter at a UPS facility in Springfield, 31-year-old Stephen A. Owens began taking unopened packages being shipped from Apple. The packages contained Macbooks, iPhones, iPods and iPads, which police said Mr. Owens was selling online.
The scheme came to light after customers who originally ordered the items began complaining they had not received their packages. Security staff at the facility noticed between September and December that a large number of packages were going missing, usually in batches. They traced the thefts back to Mr. Owens, who investigators said concealed the items in his pants or by other means to get them out of the building.
Police originally charged Mr. Owens with embezzlement in December, at which point he resigned from the UPS facility. However it was not until May that they charged him with embezzlement counts that covered the theft of all 62 stolen items, Fairfax police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell said.
Police continued to investigate whether others, including the buyers, were involved in the scheme, but Ms. Caldwell said Mr. Owens is the only person expected to be charged in the case.
“It appears that the buyers of the products were unwitting,” she said.
• Andrea Noble can be reached at anoble@washingtontimes.com.
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