FedEx driver accused of dumping $40,000 worth of packages is ordered to pay $805

A 22-year-old FedEx driver dumped 400 packages worth nearly $40,000 in an Alabama ravine in 2021, deputies said.

Now, he’s been ordered to pay $805.

Four out of five theft charges against him were dropped, and he pleaded guilty on Jan. 10 to one count, which was reduced to a misdemeanor in the plea agreement, the Blount County clerk’s office told McClatchy News.

The charges stem from a series of incidents in November 2021 in which the worker threw the packages into a ravine because he said he didn’t want to deliver them, the Blount County Sheriff’s Office said.

When questioned, the FedEx driver told deputies he had been grieving the death of his uncle and was dealing with other personal issues, Sheriff Mark Moon said in a news conference on Dec. 10.

The property where the FedEx worker dumped the packages was vacant, but the owner was in the process of selling the land, Moon said. The owner was showing a potential buyer around the property the day before Thanksgiving when they saw the discarded packages.

At first they thought the items were trash, but then “they noticed it was much more than just garbage,” Moon said.

When investigators began sorting through the items, they discovered approximately 400 packages, deputies reported at the time. Moon said they found the driver had made five separate trips between Nov. 17 and Nov. 24 before the items were discovered.

FedEx sent trucks to collect the boxes and bring them to their distribution center to determine where they came from and where they were going.

The company recovered 153 packages they could scan, totaling $14,800 in value, Moon said. An additional 247 packages couldn’t be scanned because of damage to bar codes or the package itself, and their value was estimated to be $24,7000.

Deputies quickly identified the 22-year-old delivery worker and charged him with cargo theft, McClatchy News previously reported.

Moon said he was respectful to investigators and sorry for what he had done, admitting he had just made “poor choices.”

Brett Bloomston, the man’s attorney, described his client as “a fantastic young man with a bright future” in a statement to AL.com.

“We are very pleased that the D.A.’s Office in Blount County considered all the evidence and, more importantly, the circumstances of (his) life and his personal situation,’’ Bloomston told the outlet. “Since this incident, (he) has proved through his actions that he was deserving of a non-custody sentence.”

Blount County is about 50 miles northeast of Birmingham.

FedEx paid man $400,000 after he lied about 67 lost packages, feds say. He’s charged

Men break into UPS warehouses, steal $1.6 million worth of ‘high-value’ items, feds say

USPS employee helps steal $5 million in checks from the mail in fraud scheme, feds say

Bloody postal worker found on garage floor after 2 dogs attacked, Georgia deputies say