UPS employee redirected thousands of mail items to his apartment, authorities say

Dushaun Henderson-Spruce reportedly received credit cards intended for UPS executives

A United Parcel Service Inc (UPS) truck makes deliveries in Chicago, Illinois (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

A former UPS employee has been charged with rerouting thousands of pieces of mail from the shipping giant’s corporate headquarters to his tiny Chicago apartment.

At least five American Express cards in the name of chief executives or other employees were among the 3,000 items found Dushaun Henderson-Spruce's possession, according to an affidavit from the US Postal Inspection Service.

However, none of the cards were found to be misused.

The mail was meant for the company’s Atlanta headquarters but he redirected it to his one-bedroom apartment, the affidavit stated.

Mr Henderson-Spruce reportedly worked briefly for UPS as a package handler in 2012. Last year, he allegedly submitted a written change-of-address form requesting the corporate address be changed from an office building in Atlanta to his North Side Chicago apartment.

It took a UPS security coordinator nearly three months to catch on to the scheme and notify postal inspectors, according to court records. By that time, the mail carrier to Mr Henderson-Spruce’s apartment had resorted to leaving the piles of mail in a UPS tub by his door.

Fifth Third Bank investigators found that 10 checks addressed to UPS were deposited into a personal account belonging to Mr Henderson-Spruce, according to the charges. The checks allegedly totalled more than $58,000(£42,817).

Mr Henderson-Spruce now faces a maximum of five years in prison for mail theft, and 20 for mail fraud. The 24-year-old has previously said the incident was a mix-up and his identity may have been stolen.

He is being held in custody ahead of his court hearing next week.

In a statement to NPR, UPS said it "was notified that some U.S. mail, intended for UPS employees at the company's headquarters address, was redirected by an unauthorized change of address by a third party".

“The US Postal Service (USPS) corrected the issue and the USPS Postal Inspector is investigating the incident,” the company added.

The USPS received more than 46,000 enquiries from customers concerning the validity of a change-of-address order between January 2016 and November 2017, according to CBS News. Only about 2,300 of these complaints were forwarded to the Postal Inspection Service.