Amazon delivery worker steals family's dog from their front yard and tries to sell it on Craigslist for $70
CROWLEY, TEXAS: An Amazon employee was fired after she admitted to stealing a dog from a Texas family's house over the Independence Day weekend, the police said.
Parker County Sheriff's Office Deputy Danie Huffman said the accused, 22-year-old Mycah Keyona Wade, a driver, was out making deliveries in the Weatherford neighborhood, Crowley, on July 5 when she stole a two-year-old dachshund named RJ that belonged to Amanda and Anthony Phillips. Devanta Lynn Mooring, Wade's boyfriend and delivery worker, was accompanying the accused at the time of the theft. He too has been let go from the company.
Wade is said to have gotten off her white van and upon noticing the dog running around its owner's yard, asked a landscaper near the area about the canine. Even after she was told that the dachshund was owned by the Phillips, she and Mooring took the dog and drove away from the scene. When the dog owners realized that RJ was missing, they enquired with construction workers nearby, who mentioned the accused and the white van she was driving.
The police were alerted to the theft and they dug through the footage of the surveillance cameras installed in the neighboring properties and identified Wade. After an arrest warrant was issued in her name, Wade turned herself in, although she kept denying that she stole the dog. Eventually, she admitted to the crime and RJ was reunited with its owners on July 9.
"It’s nice to have him back, he’s my baby," Phillips told the Cleburne Times-Review at the time of the reunion. "We were all devastated."
Around the time that the dog went missing, an advertisement showed up on Craigslist for a dachshund on sale. Although the seller's name and contact information were not listed in the ad, the police suspected it to have been put up by Wade. "There was no contact information, but we’re pretty sure it was RJ that was for sale on Craigslist for $100," Parker County Sheriff’s Property Crimes Investigator Ethan Stark said, Daily Mail reported. "The ad immediately changed once I contacted the suspect," the officer said.
Anthony told the New York Post on Monday: "Within a couple of hours of the ad going up, the price dropped to $70. And then they took the post down."
Amazon released the following statement on the incident: “This does not reflect the high standards we have for delivery service partners. We’re glad the customer has been reunited with their pet, and we have been in touch with them to make it right.”
The e-commerce giant also sent over a “big basket” of dog treats and rawhide bones to compensate the family for their ordeal. “I just hope they’ll learn from it and take a closer look at who they have delivering their packages and representing their company,” Anthony said. “We’re now looking into getting a security system and I’m definitely going to get a fence around my property, as well as getting my dogs chipped.”