HARRIS COUNTY, Texas – Thousands of dollars in Amazon deliveries bound for Houston-area homes were allegedly stolen out of a local warehouse by a third-party delivery driver who’s now wanted in Harris County for felony theft of cargo.
Juan Pablo Carreon-Garcia, 46, is accused of stealing the pallets and packages in the overnight hours earlier this summer. He wasn’t charged until late last week.
Since he hasn’t been arrested, KPRC 2 does not have a booking photo of the suspect.
According to charging documents, he stole $11,618.29 worth of customers' packages from the Amazon Sort Center at 8120 Humble Westfield Road near Bush Airport.
Records show some of the stolen goods include heartburn and gas super chews, premium clumping cat litter, face lift tape, and even a swimming pool leaf skimmer. Bigger-ticket items included noise-canceling headphones and a record player.
Carreon-Garcia arrived at the sort center around 2:50 a.m. on June 3, according to records, when he scanned the pallets and packages he was supposed to deliver.
He worked for a third-party delivery company, but as part of Amazon policy, he had to be signed in to a GPS tracking app while completing his assigned route.
He had the app activated for some of the planned route, which included a stop at a USPS Post Office in the Kingwood area, investigators with the Texas Department of Public Safety said. But after that stop when he was supposed to be going to a USPS Post Office in the 77006 zip code, the app stopped working and the data was no longer available.
According to the documents, drivers make an agreement to have the tool on and activated before they enter an Amazon building and keep it on until the completion of their routes.
A spokesperson for Amazon told KPRC 2 he was suspended once it was discovered the packages were missing.
About a month after the packages disappeared, on July 3, USPS Inspectors and officers with the Austin Police Department discovered multiple Amazon packages at a self-storage facility in the downtown Austin area, after the manager reported finding empty packaging in the dumpster.
Investigators traced about 40 of the packages worth thousands in the Austin storage unit to the missing items from the Houston sort center. The storage unit had been rented by Carreon-Garcia, records show.
DPS wouldn’t provide any additional details on the case, citing an ongoing criminal investigation.
Amazon is supporting law enforcement during the investigation, the company spokesperson said, adding that generally, customers who don’t receive their items usually get replacements or refunds.