FedEx employee charged with theft

Courtney Brodbeck

The Signal Staff

Terrance King, 24, of Houston.

A FedEx delivery man accused of stealing two Dell laptop computers from the University of Houston-Clear Lake and then selling the stolen merchandise across state lines was arrested Sept. 1.

The delivery man, Terrance King, 24, of Houston, was arrested after allegedly stealing two laptops with a retail value of $4,200 and then selling one to a man in New York City through Craig’s List for $800, said Paul Willingham, UHCL police chief.

The laptops were reported missing Aug. 11 by the Health and Disability Services and the University Computing and Telecommunications Department after they had not received the computers.

After researching the complaint, the receiving dock station at UHCL found that the laptops were technically delivered; thus began the UHCL police investigation.

“We didn’t immediately look at the FedEx driver,” Chief Willingham said. “First and foremost we looked at the dock employees to see if the laptops were somehow misappropriated on the dock after being received because, according to the FedEx paperwork, they were signed for.”

The UHCL police reported the missing laptops to Computrace, which is a program that can track the computers once someone has logged on to the Internet. The information sent to Computrace identified that one laptop had been logged on in Houston, and the other in New York City.

“We got the information that one of the residents in Houston using the device was Terrance King, who turns out to be the FedEx driver that made our deliveries,” Willingham said.

Upon further investigation, UHCL police discovered that employees on the delivery dock at UHCL weren’t actually checking every item.  The thefts had apparently occurred on separate days, one July 15 and the other July 17.

“Basically, the way they went unnoticed was because they were ordered in bulk and the driver would apparently pull one off once he realized the dock folks weren’t really counting them,” Willingham said. “It looked like a pallet of laptops, so they weren’t actually accounting for each individual laptop in the pallet.”

After obtaining this information, UHCL police filed for a warrant and arrested King on campus when he made his next delivery. When they went to his home the next day to retrieve the computer, the computer was not there. The police did find paraphernalia, however, such as the computer bag it came in.

David Westrick, a public relations spokesperson for FedEx, said that they are “cooperating fully with authorities, and the driver is no longer delivering or working for FedEx at this point.”

“We don’t tolerate any abuse of our system,” said Ann Saccomano, a media relation’s spokesperson for FedEx.

The UHCL police also tracked down the computer in New York, with the help of the New York Police Department. A man in New York City had legitimately bought the computer from Craig’s List for $800 from King, so he was a victim as well, Willingham said.

Richard Adams, operations support director for the UHCL receiving dock, said they are taking steps to ensure an incident like this will not happen again.
“We would like to thank the UHCL police for their investigation of this situation,” Adams said.

“When you handle stuff and it goes missing, automatically you become the first suspect,” Willingham said. “I thought the employees at the dock were very professional and supported us very well.”

King, who has a prior record, is currently under charges and pending trial for what amounts to felony theft; he is out on bail at this time. The UHCL police are presently working with the FBI to obtain federal charges since stolen goods were sold across state lines. If convicted, King could potentially face a fine and up to a year in prison.

“It’s a good idea to know that when there’s a hole in the processes, there will be someone to look to exploit it,” Willingham said.