FORT WAYNE, Ind. (ADAMS) – Amazon employees in Fort Wayne are charged with organized retail theft for allegedly stealing and reselling iPhones.
19-year-old Omar Kelly and his 18-year-old brother Amir Kelly were arrested Tuesday in connection with ten stolen iPhone 15s, and six of the phones have been recovered. Another Amazon employee and her boyfriend are still wanted for selling 154 iPhones from the warehouse, and 55 of those have been recovered. Their names have not been released.
The Fort Wayne Police Department released the following:
The Fort Wayne Police Department Property Detectives were contacted by a representative from ecoATM concerning a large amount of suspicious transactions involving Apple iPhone15s.
EcoATM is a service were you can sell your phone for cash and reduce electronic waste. Those sales are documented and tracked by ecoATM. An initial suspect list was provided to Detectives and a thorough investigation using LeadsOnline as a tool, the following organized Amazon retail theft.
Omar Kelly (19 years of age) an Amazon employee and his brother, Amir Kelly (18 years of age) were arrested on 9/3/24 in connection to ten stolen iPhone 15s from Amazon (est. value$7,456); with six iPhones being recovered (est. value $4,280).
Both were charged with Organized Retail Theft a Level 6 Felony. Another Amazon employee (active warrant) and her boyfriend (active warrant) used other people to sell the devices to ecoATM.
Employee and boyfriend, both also sold devices toecoATM. A total of 154 iPhones sold (est. value $138,094) with 55 iPhones recovered (est.value $49,413). Both suspects currently have active warrants. There were additional thefts and sales of iPhone 15s by other Amazon employees and charges are currently pending. The total estimated value of all iPhones stolen from Amazon by employees was $156,897.00 and the total recovered was $54,593.00.
All of the suspects used ecoATMs as a vehicle to sell the stolen phones. EcoATM has been very cooperative in this investigation and records all transactions. Amazon Loss Prevention, LeadsOnline, and ecoATM were crucial partners in this investigation, and without their assistance, this matter would not have been discovered or successfully investigated.
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