My question involves criminal law for the state of: Texas (north Texas, as in Dallas Fort Worth, if that helps).
I will keep this as abbreviated as possible. Keep in mind that I live in an apartment complex where mailboxes are not near my apartment, and packages requiring signature to release them are to be signed by a rental office employee, and held by rental office until the tenant retrieves the package. Tenant must also sign the rental office log where receipt of packages are recorded.
Here we go....
I ordered clothing from a retailer known to have physical stores primarily on the East Coast of US. (The store only rarely exists in outlet shopping malls outside of the East Coast.) I paid for the items, and retailer ships to me via UPS. I receive UPS tracking # and watch the movement of package online. Due to adverse weather (icy roads and snow) last week, the delivery was notably delayed. Last Thurs during the adverse weather, I get a UPS email notification (that I signed up to receive) that my package was "delivered". I view the tracking online and it says package was "DELIVERED" at "OFFICE" and signed by "IJOHNSON" on 2/3/11 at 12:05p. (I was at my workplace during this time.) I get home too late on Thurs to retrieve the pkge from rental office. On Fri, I wasn't able to pick up pkge due to my attendance to a concert. First thing on Sat morning, I visit rental office to retrieve package. One of the employees there (who is acquainted with me given the many packages that I have recently rec'vd, and relative to my lease renewal) said that they didn't have a UPS pkge for me. Asked him to check again given the UPS email I rec'vd. No dice. Says there isn't anything for me. Said that sometimes pkges get delivered to the neighboring apartment complex and should check there. He phoned that office on my behalf to inquire about the missing pkge, and no dice. I called UPS that evening to speak w/rep. Long and short of it, is that UPS said the sender would need to initiate a claim to investigate the missing pkge. Said they couldn't do anything for me, and it was the sender who bares the responsibility of initiating the claim. Frustrated, I decided just to randomly check EBAY for the sale of the clothing that I bought. Voila! The 3 items I bought were being sold on EBAY. (For weeks before I purchased through retailer, I checked EBAY regularly to see if same items were being sold, and nothing.) Here's where the story gets fishy. Interestingly enough, the EBAY seller is listed as being located in my same town/city. (It's a small city.) The listings indicate new clothing items w/tags, and are being sold at a higher cost than I had purchased. (I purchased via retailer's outlet store online.) Items on EBAY seller's store page are identical to the color, size, style, and condition (brand new) to the 3 items that I purchased. Too coincidental! I then called retailer to inquire if items contained some sort of unique identifier like a serial number/bar coding that would essentially mean something like, "this is coat style #123 is tracked as the 18th coat sold and shipped out of the warehouse". Rep at retailer says no - not possible. They only link the style # and color as being shipped and sold from warehouse. Asked retailer to initiate the investigation w/UPS, and send me the soft copy of the purchase invoices that I had for the clothing inside the shipment in question. Retailer sends me invoices via email to validate proof of purchase.
I then called local police department and spoke with a detective. First detective tells me she lives in my same apartment complex and experienced same delivery mixup over Christmas holiday time some time ago. Said that package was at neighboring complex and released to her. Second detective says that I would need to substantiate that the items being sold by EBAY seller are my items that were in UPS package that never got to me. Said if clothing has something like serial #s, it would make the case a done deal. Said it would be difficult to prove w/something to match. Wasn't happy about his response. Officer asked if items were 'rare' or 'unique'. I said rare in terms of availability and accessibility to purchase it but not so in terms of item description. Items are not some golden leather jacket with diamonds on it. Not unique in that sense. Officer said that if substantiated, I could file a complaint/report, and a warrant would go out for the accused. Accused would likely be arrested for misdemeanor (items were bought for little over $100), and likely pay a fine and just have a criminal record w/o jail time if it's their first offense. End call w/officer.
Determined to get the clothing items, I created a brand new EBAY and PAYPAL account (so I didn't have to use my regular EBAY and PAYPAL accounts) so that I could present myself as a different person living out of state, and purchase the 3 items. I had the assistance of a friend out of state and used her billing and shipping info to make the purchase that same night. Now I have incurred add'l cost for repurchasing the items.
As soon as the payment goes through, the identity (first + last name, email address, tel # on PAYPAL) of the seller is revealed. I take a screenshot of that PAYPAL confirmation info, and I start searching the internet for any trace of this person. Find her on 2 social media networks where her page info was open to the public (not private as most people know to do). Searched and found her on whitepages.com w/an address listing. Continued taking and saving screenshots of all of this contact info that I find. I stay connected to EBAY seller to develop a comfort level and ask how items were obtained by her. Told her that item was being eyed by me for a long time - this was very true! EBAY seller ships items today and it will be received by friend in 3 days. EBAY seller very inattentive and didn't provide shipping confirm info as I requested. All EBAY seller mentioned was that it was shipped today via USPS priority and will be rec'vd in 3 days at "my" P.O. Box address. So the countdown begins. Hoping the package will reveal EBAY seller's true originating residence. She may very well live in the apartments near me. Or she could live in the other neighboring complex. It may be an inside UPS job, or someone she knows at UPS that aided in this. It could be an apartment complex employee assisting her. I don't know what to think but I didn't sit and wait to hear about the findings of retailer and UPS. I've already done some reading/research of mail theft on this site and other resources. I know that UPS doesn't classify as mail (as in USPS mail where stolen UPS mail is a federal crime). However, the obstruction of package delivery and stealing contents is a crime. Package was explicitly marked for me at my home address. Couldn't be any clearer. EBAY seller sells craft items, and has never sold clothing before, so why all of a sudden now? And why the identical items that I had shipped to me? Too much coincidence here for a judge/cop not to raise a brow. Everyone that I've told (family only out of state) is in disbelief. I do not know how she got my package, nor do I know how it got noted in UPS's system as delivered to OFFICE when my rental office folks have no knowledge of this.
I also went to the neighboring apartment complex and questioned the employees there, and nothing. Called them several times including my own apartment complex about this whole matter. Nothing. I'm fed up, and at this point, even though I will happily be getting (or at least so it seems at this point) my clothing, I'm highly agitated about spending the money twice. Because UPS and the retailer were moving so slowly in this investigation, I did take this into my own hands and do my own legwork. Retailer said they would refund me the cash for the clothing, which is fine and I appreciate it. But I DO NOT appreciate having my property brazingly stolen. I am not inclined to let this rest.
Do I have a legitimate and substantiated criminal case here or what? I can prove I bought the items and EBAY seller cannot; she told me that it was a gift too small for her from Christmas time. Nonsense. She stole my clothing and I believe she would do it again to someone. I will no longer ship any items to my apartment complex. Everything will be shipped to my workplace going forward.
I need some advice here to settle this matter. Thank you in advance.


