Pasco deputies arrest 15-year-old for theft of UPS packages

PASCO COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – Like a lot of people, Jason Shelton did some online shopping last year.

One of his purchases arrived with a problem.

“We had received a package that was swapped out for a book instead of what we had ordered,” said Shelton.

He notified the company and received a refund, but it wasn’t until other people in the neighborhood started talking and posting information on Facebook that they realized there was a pattern of theft.

Christine Gillsinger had a similar problem with a gift ordered from Amazon.

“We got looking into Amazon and it said it had been delivered and after starting to look into it, we realized that it had not been. When we started talking to neighbors and thought about it, we started realizing it was a trend and it had happened to a lot of people, so we made the police report,” said Gilsinger.

The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office investigated the crimes and arrested a 15-year-old who News Channel 8 is not identifying because of his age.

The arrest report points out the father of the 15-year-old has a business delivering packages for UPS.

The arrest report says the boy has admitted the crimes and says he’s been taking things from packages for at least two months, but he displayed no remorse when talking to detectives.

A spokesman for UPS says their security team is investigating the incident and will cooperate with local law enforcement.