Oklahoma authorities are looking into the Grinch who stole hundreds of Amazon packages that were supposed to be delivered by Christmas Day.
“Hundreds of people didn’t get their Christmas gifts,” Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Aaron Brilbeck told Fox News Digital Monday. “This is porch piracy on steroids.”
A tipster called in to report “illegal dumping” in a wooded area on New Year’s Eve, Brilbeck said. But when deputies arrived, they discovered the heist of almost 600 undelivered Amazon packages that had shipped out of the distribution center but never reached the Postal Service.
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Many of them were in envelopes, rather than boxes, and the thief could feel their contents through the paper. The rest of the packages had been ransacked.
Investigators were going through the remaining items parcel-by-parcel with help from both Amazon and the Postal Service, according to authorities.
(Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office)
“Our deputies found hundreds of Amazon packages,” Brilbeck said. “The vast majority of them have been opened. Some had not. … The ones that weren’t open all contain books, and it appears the person is not very well-read.”
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Videos shared by investigators show Amazon boxes and envelopes stacked up in the county’s crime lab, nearly filling it to its entirety as investigators sorted through the evidence.
The items were part of a shipment from a local Amazon facility that was meant to go to the U.S. Postal Service for delivery to hundreds of holiday customers.
“For whatever reason, they didn’t make it to the U.S. Postal Service,” Brilbeck said.
The delivery driver is a person of interest in the case, he said, but he declined to identify any suspects in the case.
Although the theft of mail items is a federal crime, investigators said that because the packages never actually made it to the Postal Service, any suspects will be charged by the state. Most likely with a felony, he added.
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Investigators were going through the remaining items parcel-by-parcel with help from both Amazon and the Postal Service, according to authorities.
Package thefts have plagued Amazon customers for years, especially around the holidays. But porch piracy usually involves thieves snatching deliveries from victims’ doorsteps before they have a chance to bring them inside — not hijacking an entire truckload.
Neither Amazon nor the Postal Service immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
