Former UPS worker accused of stealing, reselling Apple electronics worth more than $1.3 M

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This article was published 19/03/2024 (562 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A now-former employee of United Parcel Service is accused of pilfering more than $1.3 million worth of Apple laptops and iPhones from the shipping company’s Winnipeg warehouse to sell on the black market over just seven months.

The case of Winnipeg police property crime detectives against 30-year-old Orville Martirez Beltrano is laid out in court documents in a lawsuit filed last Wednesday in the Court of King’s Bench by the province’s criminal property forfeiture director.

The civil case seeks the court’s approval for provincial officials to seize Beltrano’s suburban house, his white Audi hatchback, $9,000 in cash and the money in his bank accounts as the proceeds and instruments of crime.

Winnipeg police charged Beltrano with theft under $5,000, theft over $5,000, possession of property obtained by crime, trafficking property obtained by crime and possession of the proceeds of crime on Jan. 22, records show.

Jan. 22 is the same day UPS was planning to fire Beltrano after its in-house security investigator determined he was responsible for hundreds of thefts, the court documents reviewed by the Free Press say.

Beltrano, who was hired by UPS in 2013, worked as a local sorting supervisor at the shipping and receiving company’s King Edward Street warehouse.

Between last July and this January, police allege Beltrano stole at least 866 Apple products — including iPhones and laptops — then sold them in bulk to a person he met on the online marketplace Kijiji.

Police also suspect he stole $9,150 worth of jewelry from the warehouse.

UPS, which is held financially liable for items that go missing during shipping, launched a probe in December to determine why a “significant number” of Apple electronic items were disappearing from the Winnipeg warehouse. The company’s Manitoba head of security installed surveillance cameras inside common areas to try to catch the thief, the court documents say, and later called in Winnipeg police.

Between Jan. 11 and 18, UPS cameras captured Beltrano removing Apple products and other electronics from pallets in the warehouse and taking them to his office elsewhere in the facility before taking them to to his vehicle on three occasions, the court papers say. In one of the thefts, he’s accused of taking 120 iPhones during a single shift.

No other employees were found to be taking items, the court documents say.

UPS’s investigator said that Beltrano was in charge of outgoing international shipments and wasn’t involved in domestic shipments, which are handled in a different part of the warehouse. All of the thefts were from pallets meant to be shipped to Thunder Bay, Ont.

The video surveillance tape shows him texting before and after he rummaged through the pallets. A Winnipeg Police Service property crime detective said in an investigation report that she suspected the video showed Beltrano communicating with a buyer by text about what he was able to steal, or looking to fill a specific illicit order.

Property crimes investigators reviewed Beltrano’s schedule in prior months and discovered all of the thefts occurred on days he was working.

The court documents allege Beltrano used his vehicle to deliver the stolen products to the buyer from Kijiji, then deposited the cash in his bank accounts. He’s accused of using the illicitly obtained cash to purchase his house in the South Pointe neighbourhood — the sale of which was approved only a few days before his arrest.

Beltrano, the court papers allege, deposited a total of $232,650 in cash in bank accounts between September last year and mid-January.

After he was arrested, Beltrano admitted to stealing some of the products and said he sold the electronics to the person he met on Kijiji, the court papers say.

He told police during a videotaped interview that he gave laptops to family as gifts, on top of the sale of the products, which he said he did to help his parents put a down payment on a house and to help his sisters with money, the court papers say.

Beltrano said he initially wanted to sell the phones to strangers online, then a person responded on Kijiji asking if he had more to sell, the court papers say. He began regularly selling the stolen products to that individual, according to the court documents.

Police searched Beltrano’s house and his vehicle on Jan. 23.

Beltrano, who has no past convictions in Manitoba, is due in court for an administrative appearance Tuesday on the criminal charges.

WPS spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen said he would not comment, as the investigation is not yet complete.

UPS did not return a request for comment Monday.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca