In a twist that reads like a crime caper and a cautionary tale rolled into one, a FedEx employee in Memphis took the phrase “special delivery” entirely too literally. Antwone Tate, a staff member at the Memphis Hub, had cooked up a scintillating side hustle—it’s just that his business model involved purloining packages with the zeal of a child unwrapping birthday presents.
It seems that Tate had a penchant for glitter and glamor, a taste he attempted to satisfy not by honest toil but by allegedly liberating items of considerable worth from the mail stream. This modern-day magpie allegedly nabbed a shipment containing an $8,500 diamond ring, a stash of gold bars valued at close to $14,000, and some storied baseball cards that any sports memorabilia aficionado would kill for.
Trouble began brewing for Tate when FedEx’s Loss Prevention division noticed an unsettling trend of vanished parcels at the Memphis Hub around the end of May. What followed was a classic investigative trail, starting with missing goods and ending at local pawn shops where these goods mysteriously resurfaced.
Detectives on the case tracked down the sparkling evidence—the diamond ring and gold bars, no less—to pawn shops where they were sold presumably by none other than the stealthy Tate. The novice thief didn’t exactly embrace the subtlety required of such an illicit side gig; his use of a personal ID for pawn transactions left a breadcrumb trail that an amateur sleuth could follow.
In addition to sparkling jewels and precious metals, the plot thickened with Tate’s foray into memorabilia. A package stuffed with baseball cards had quietly disappeared, including treasures like a 1915 Cracker Jack Chief Bender card and a coveted 1933 Goudey Sport Kings Ty Cobb card. These cards, valued at an enticing $6,800, later resurfaced on eBay. The seller’s username, “antta_57,” was far from the digital cloak of invisibility it might have been, leading investigators straight back to our daring FedEx courier.
With mounting evidence against him, Tate found himself in a bind tighter than any FedEx packing tape. FedEx responded swiftly to the kerfuffle. No need for a digital pink slip in this drama; Tate was ceremoniously relieved of his duties, proving yet again that petty thievery will get you nowhere in corporate America. The statement from FedEx was straightforward, making it crystal clear that while innovation is encouraged, parcel pilfering is decidedly not in the employee handbook.
As the story unfolds, many are left wondering: What was Tate thinking? Did he imagine he’d seamlessly transition from package handler to treasure tycoon? Or perhaps he envisioned his eBay alter ego as the beginning of an underground marketplace empire?
Now, facing charges for the heist trifecta, Tate stands on unsteady ground. Stealing may have felt like an irresistible shortcut, but even in a world filled with Amazon deliveries and doorstep drop-offs, the system demands accountability.
What remains is a valuable lesson, albeit an amusing one, in the art of not getting caught—or at least, the art of not embroiling oneself in felonious endeavors to begin with. Tate’s tale cautions against mixing occupational responsibilities with sleight-of-hand schemes. His story—rife with missteps and miscalculations—serves as a modern fable for all would-be theft entrepreneurs.
For the rest of us, it’s a reminder to track our packages and maybe side-eye our delivery person, just in case. The next time your package is listed as “Out for Delivery” and somehow vanishes into the ether, it pays to check eBay. But if you do, steer clear of anything peddled by a user suspiciously similar to antta_58, because lightning and FedEx employees both seem willing to strike twice.
