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FedEx Driver Linked to Theft: Van Also Stolen, Company Says

Posted on: Thursday, 12 January 2006, 15:00 CST

By Christine Vendel and Benita Y. Williams, The Kansas City Star, Mo.

Jan. 12--FedEx has determined why dozens of Christmas gifts and Internet orders never reached their destinations in the Kansas City area last month.

A seasonal employee took the items, along with a FedEx van, from one of the company's facilities in Lenexa, company officials told police. The employee was the girlfriend of the man who lived at the apartment where police recovered the stolen goods, according to Kansas City police.

When the woman discovered that the packages were gone, she yelled at apartment complex employees and accused them of stealing from her, police reports show.

FedEx and Lenexa police were continuing to investigate. No charges had been filed.

An apartment complex employee found the packages Dec. 27, when he checked an apartment in the 7900 block of Sycamore Avenue. The complex had evicted the tenant. The employee was making sure the man had moved.

The man's personal belongings were gone, but a pile of FedEx packages remained in the living room. All were addressed to Kansas City area residents. None was addressed to the tenant.

The apartment employee called Kansas City police, who recovered about 50 items. Some packages were empty, including boxes that had contained a bicycle and computer equipment. Other packages had been opened but still held their contents, including 27 items from Southern Living, such as candleholders and flowerpots. Other boxes remained unopened.

Invoices indicated the packages were sent from various locations between Dec. 7 and Dec. 20. All the packages were linked to the same FedEx delivery vehicle, a white 2006 Chevrolet van, police said.

The day after police recovered the packages, FedEx officials reported the van stolen. They told Lenexa police that the driver had failed to show for work that morning, Dec. 28, at the company's offices at 13900 W. 101st St.

Company officials had called her at home but received no answer. Lenexa police described her as a temporary driver hired for the holiday season.

That day, the woman and her boyfriend returned to the Kansas City apartment complex. The woman became "very loud and upset" that the packages were gone, according to police reports.

"That property you stole ... was for my kids' Christmas," the woman allegedly yelled at the apartment manager, according to police reports.

The manager told her that police had taken the items. The woman didn't believe the manager and she and her boyfriend called a sergeant at a patrol division station to ask where the packages were. The sergeant said he would check into the matter and they should call back.

On Dec. 29, the woman called FedEx asking for her paycheck. She was told she could not have it until the van was returned.

Company officials called police just before 8:30 a.m. the next morning to say the van mysteriously had reappeared in their parking lot overnight.

To reach Christine Vendel, call (816) 234-4438 or send e-mail to cvendel@kcstar.com .

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Kansas City Star, Mo.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

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Source: The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Missouri)

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