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Two teenage employees of a UPS store in Miami Lakes and a third accomplice are facing criminal charges for stealing 80 boxes of merchandise valued at approximately $40,000 between March 21 and April 13, according to the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office.
According to NBC Miami, the primary suspect, Angel Caleb Pagan, 18 years old, was arrested on Wednesday directly at Barbara Goleman Senior High School in Miami Lakes, where he studies alongside one of his co-defendants.
Pagan faces second-degree grand theft charges for property valued between $20,000 and $100,000, as well as tampering with physical evidence.
His two co-defendants, Matthew Martinez and Jacob Diaz, both 17 years old, were still at large at the time of the first reports of the case.
Pagan and Martínez worked together at the UPS store located at 8555 NW 186th Street in Hialeah, and both attend the same high school.
The victims are a couple who own an online retail business that sells products from Bath & Body Works and Victoria's Secret through Amazon and directly to customers.
The husband told investigators that when leaving the packages at the store, he was frequently assisted by Pagan and Martínez, who reportedly diverted the merchandise before it was registered for shipment.
The establishment's surveillance cameras were key to the case: the videos show Martínez taking out five boxes through the back door while Pagan acted as a lookout.
On April 13, out of ten boxes delivered, only five were scanned for shipping; the other five vanished through the back exit.
Two days later, on April 15 at 5:08 PM, Pagan was seen turning off the store's security system, with no recordings until the owner restored power that same night.
Part of the stolen merchandise, with distinctive packaging, was found for sale on social media: Diaz posted items on Facebook Marketplace for prices as low as one dollar each, according to a report by Local 10.
Pagan appeared before a bond judge accompanied by his family, who set his bail at $5,000.
His defense attorney, Robert Pelier, argued that the young man has no prior criminal record, is about to graduate, and has spent a year at the store with excellent performance evaluations, labeling the case as "a great misunderstanding."
UPS issued a statement indicating that the store is an independent franchise whose employees were terminated following the revelation of the events: "The trust of all customers of The UPS Store is of utmost importance, and we take any allegations of theft very seriously," stated the company's spokesperson, adding that the franchise owner is fully cooperating with the authorities.
This case adds to a pattern of internal thefts in the logistics chain of e-commerce in South Florida, where delivery service employees have been involved in similar incidents in recent months.
In May 2025, a Cuban Amazon delivery driver was arrested in Miami-Dade after stealing merchandise from 13 pallets valued at approximately 45,000 dollars.
In December 2025, another Amazon delivery driver in Miami was arrested for stealing packages between November and December of that year, with a restitution value exceeding $2,200.
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