Houston delivery driver accused of stealing pallets of Amazon packages from warehouse

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — Thousands of dollars in Amazon deliveries for Houston-area homes were allegedly stolen from a local warehouse by a third-party delivery driver who is now wanted in Harris County for cargo theft.

Juan Pablo Carreon-Garcia, 46, is accused of stealing pallets and packages during the night earlier this summer. He was only charged late last week.

Because he was not arrested, KPRC 2 does not have a booking photo of the suspect.

According to charging documents, he stole $11,618.29 worth of customer packages from the Amazon Sort Center at 8120 Humble Westfield Road, near Bush Airport.

Records show the stolen goods include super chews for heartburn and flatulence, premium clumping cat litter, facelift tape and even a swimming pool skimmer. The more expensive items included noise-canceling headphones and a record player.

According to records, Carreon-Garcia arrived at the sorting center around 2:50 a.m. on June 3 as he was scanning the pallets and packages he was scheduled to deliver.

He worked for a third-party delivery company, but Amazon policy required him to be logged into a GPS tracking app while traveling his assigned route.

He had activated the app for part of the planned route, which included a stop at a USPS post office in the Kingwood area, Texas Department of Public Safety investigators said. But after that stop, when he was supposed to go 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 agree that the tool will be turned on and activated before entering an Amazon building and that it will remain on until the completion of their trip.

An Amazon spokesperson told KPRC 2 that he was suspended when the packages were discovered missing.

About a month after the packages went missing, USPS inspectors and Austin Police Department officers discovered several Amazon packages at a self-storage facility in downtown Austin on July 3 after the manager reported finding empty packages in the dumpster.

Investigators traced about 40 of the packages worth thousands in the Austin warehouse to missing items from the Houston sorting center. The storage unit had been rented by Carreon-Garcia, records show.

DPS declined to provide further details about the case, citing an ongoing criminal investigation.

Amazon is assisting law enforcement during the investigation, the company spokesman said, adding that customers who do not receive their items generally receive replacements or refunds.