In a plot twist straight out of an Ocean’s Eleven sequel, a FedEx employee from Memphis, Antwone Tate, decided that instead of just delivering precious parcels, he’d help himself to a few. Unfortunately for Mr. Tate, his caper crumbled faster than a poorly packaged cookie when investigators started noticing more than just smoothly dispatched deliveries.
It all began on an inconspicuous day at the Memphis Hub when the company’s Loss Prevention team picked up on a curious trend—one involving suspiciously disappearing high-value packages. Cue the sleuthing, and the investigators traced the shiny trail of missing items back to dust motes glittering in pawn shops.
Among the shimmering treasures were an $8,500 diamond ring and nearly $14,000 in gold bars, a collection that would make even a pirate itch to say, “Arrr!” And if that wasn’t enough, Tate seemed to have sought out the charm of America’s pastime with an eye-catching mise-en-scène of vintage baseball cards. With names like Chief Bender and Ty Cobb, these weren’t just any run-of-the-mill cards. Worth an impressive $6,800, these cardboard time capsules held the dreams of collectors and did so quite reassuringly—until they vanished as well.
It seems Tate had briefly traded his uniform for the number one spot in a line-up nobody wants to bat in when investigators tracked down the ring and gold bars, neatly pawned all over Memphis. His choice of leaving a paper trail the width of the Mississippi with his own driver’s license stymied even what could only be defined as his lackadaisical attempts at subterfuge.
The twisted tale took another turn when vintage baseball cards—yes, the very ones that appeared abstracted away by poltergeists of the unsupervised warehouse variety—bubbled to the surface once again, this time under the digital gavel of eBay auctions. Impressively non-anonymous, the seller account antta_57 was traced back to Tate with the subtlety of a name tag reading, “I did it.”
This quirky nickname might as well have been signed confessional artwork hurriedly strewn on a personal gallery wall. It’s tempting to consider Tate’s moment of triumph when he, perhaps for a fleeting second, envisioned a buyer excitedly bidding on one-perfect-morning Chief Bender and the illustrious Ty Cobb as something akin to a sleight of hand.
His dealing days brought forth a revelation of a different kind when law enforcement intervened. Charged with theft of property, this freshly made ex-employee now faced legal consequences that certainly weren’t distinctively collectible.
FedEx, for its part, dispensed with the subtlety and responded in befitting tone—Tate is out. In their statement, FedEx didn’t skip a beat noting the robust contrast between actual employee perks and “entrepreneurial misadventures” unapproved by HR guidelines. They reminded the workforce and customers alike that light-fingered interpretations of workplace perks are frowned upon, and the act of pilfering gifts from the gods of shipping does more than just void warranties of employment.
This convoluted farce of misplaced fortune should serve as an industriously cautionary tale: when tracking informs you your parcel is “out for delivery” yet fails to materialize before your blinking eyes, it might be worth a digital dive into eBay’s treasure trove. Just be wary, as poetic justice rails with urgency when encountering anything linked with antta_58—lest you too fall into the pageantry of a forever-turning news cycle.
So, to collectors everywhere, remember that while FedEx is adept at delivering your treasures, and eBay at auctioning dreams, not everything that glitters in the parcel is gold, nor as easily won or lost when the mystery of unsolved packets beckons you ever forward.
