Man Charged After $680,000 Electronics Trailer Taken in Fake FedEx Pickup at New Castle Warehouse

NEW CASTLE, Del. — A pair who identified themselves as FedEx employees drove away from a New Castle warehouse on Sept. 14 with a trailer holding more than $680,000 in electronics, using driver’s licenses and shipping documents that Delaware State Police say were fraudulent. Troopers recovered the trailer the next day in Newark with all of its cargo inside and arrested one of the two; police have not announced an arrest of the other.

According to state police, the two arrived in a tractor at about 9:15 a.m. at a business in the 1100 block of River Road. They presented the licenses and paperwork for a loaded trailer, hitched it to the tractor and left. A short time later, the shipping documents were found to be fraudulent. Police have not named the business or said who uncovered the fraud.

On Sept. 15, troopers were called to University Plaza in Newark, where someone from the business had found the tractor-trailer parked. While speaking with the caller, troopers saw one of the suspects walking toward the rig. They determined that the licenses shown at the warehouse and the tractor-trailer’s registration plate were fraudulent. Police have not said how the business located the trailer.

The man, 35, of Manteca, Calif., was taken into custody without incident and brought to Troop 2. He is charged with theft of property valued at $100,000 or more and first- and second-degree forgery, which police list as felonies, plus second-degree conspiracy and a fictitious registration plate offense. After arraignment in Justice of the Peace Court, he was committed to the Department of Correction on $66,550 secured bond. The charges are allegations, and he is presumed innocent.

Police have released no name or description of the second person. The State Police Criminal Investigations Unit is continuing the investigation; anyone with information can contact Detective S. Marioni at (302) 365-8388 or Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-847-3333.

Fictitious pickups have held nearly steady even as other cargo theft has fallen. Verisk CargoNet counted 158 fictitious pickups across the U.S. and Canada in the second quarter of 2026, down only slightly from 165 a year earlier, while incidents it classified as theft fell from 488 to 378. Overall, CargoNet recorded 677 supply chain theft incidents in the quarter, 26% fewer than in Q2 2025, yet estimated losses more than doubled to $304.6 million. “Lower incident volume should not be mistaken for lower risk,” said Keith Lewis, CargoNet’s vice president of operations.

Police have not described the warehouse’s release procedures or what was checked at the dock. But the order of events in their account — papers and IDs presented, trailer gone, fraud discovered afterward — is the weakness a fictitious pickup exploits. The checks that close it happen before release: confirming the pickup with the carrier or broker through contact details already on file, not those printed on the presented paperwork, and matching the driver, tractor and plate to what was tendered. Neither depends on spotting a forged license by eye.

CargoChronicle will follow the case through the Delaware courts, including any arrest of the second suspect.