Last updated April 12, 2019
Police have charged the manager of a cell phone store after he failed to turn over an iPhone shipment that was accidentally delivered to his store and which he decided to resell himself instead. Lee Garcia, the manager of a Cricket store in Cricket Hills, has been charged with theft.
According to the arrest warrant, almost $22,000 worth of iPhones were accidentally delivered to Garcia’s store, which is situated in the 1000 block at Jackson Keller, late last October by a FedEx driver. An employee signed for the phones, but investigators say that once the employee realized the mistake, they assumed that Garcia would do the right thing and return the phones. That did not happen, according to police.
Instead, the 40 year old decided to take the iPhone shipment to another cell phone store that is located in the 11500 block at Perrin Beltel in order to have them flashed clean to ensure they could then be sold. Police say that Garcia attempted to bribe two employees to keep silent and then threatened their lives if they did not. One employee was bribed with $1500, while Garcia is alleged to have insinuated that he was connected to the Mexican Mafia as a way of frightening the employees.
The arrest document states that one employee told the Cricket market manager about the iPhone scheme regardless and handed over the bribe money.