In a tale that reads like a heist movie plot, a FedEx employee from Memphis allegedly took a creative approach to job perks, swapping the conventional handshake for a more illicit exchange of goods. While most FedEx workers are content with shipping packages to their rightful destinations, Antwone Tate seemed to follow a different kind of business model—one that involved liberation of luxury items from their cardboard confines and direct delivery to his wallet.
The saga began to unravel back on May 27. At the heart of the FedEx Memphis Hub, a whirl of activity hummed along its usual frenetic pace. But within the chaos, the diligent eyes of the Loss Prevention team noted an alarming trend—packages were going missing, vanishing into thin air without so much as a signed conspicuous redelivery notice.
On closer inspection, these weren’t your garden-variety Amazon deliveries of socks or smartphone cases. No, these were parcels holding treasures worthy of any pirate’s loot—an $8,500 diamond ring, nearly $14,000 in gold bars, and somewhere amongst them, nostalgia-packed slices of Americana in the form of vintage baseball cards.
Our main character, Antwone Tate, seemingly fancied himself a kind of modern-day pirate, sans the eyepatch and parrot. More Blackbeard with a badge than Black Friday deal hunter. Tracking the trail of missing goods led to a logical, if somewhat predictable, destination: a pawn shop brimming with the sorts of valuables that must have made the shop owner whistle a tune.
Tate’s error, a classic of rookie heists everywhere, was famously simple. He believed that using his own driver’s license for the transaction would somehow lead him far away from capture. It’s a curious choice—like keeping your return address on a ransom note—but alas, it was his undoing. Official investigations followed this breadcrumb trail all the way to the pawn shop, where officers found the gold bars glistening and the diamond ring resplendent, whispering tales of their rightful owners.
Yet the story spans even further. A third package on its ill-fated journey seemed to dive into a different realm of collectors’ dreams. It was a time capsule of cardboard and ink—a 1915 Cracker Jack Chief Bender and a 1933 Goudey Sport Kings Ty Cobb, cards that could set any collector’s heart racing with the thrill of collectible conquest. Their collective worth? A not-so-modest $6,800.
The cards didn’t stay hidden long. Enter the world of eBay, where keen-eyed collectors spotted the legendary items under the seller username antta_57. To the chagrin of Tate, this alias might as well have been a confession letter, as investigators followed the cyber fingerprints back to him with all the ease of logging into their email.
In a turn that surprises no one except, perhaps, a bewildered Tate, authorities have now charged the erstwhile FedEx worker with theft of property, casually putting an emphatic stop on his side hustle. The playwright’s fourth wall, in this case, was a courtroom wall through which we watched Tate’s entrepreneurial escapades ground to a halt.
FedEx responded with the unavoidable reality check that stealing is not, in any universe, part of the job description. In a valedictory performance of corporate dismissal, FedEx officially shifted Tate’s status from “employee” to “ex-employee,” issuing a statement likely delivered with a dry, lawyerly tongue-in-cheek sentiment.
As for those affected packages and their now bereft owners, the company promised to make restitution. Yet, this serves as a wry reminder that the world of package deliveries holds its risks and tales of misadventure lurking beneath the surface.
While some may bemoan the loss to private collections temporarily misappropriated by Mr. Tate, one thing is clear: once discovery supersedes delivery, it gets harder to put the genie back in the metaphorical bottle—or, in this case, the FedEx truck. For now, buyers eager for rare collectibles might do well to avoid auctions with the user “antta_58.” Future lessons in honesty and caution, amidst this whirlwind of package purloining, have arrived for shipment—but hopefully not via FedEx.
This entire incident serves as a wry footnote in the textbook of “what not to do” while on the job. In Tate’s case, it’s back to ground delivery—a tough lesson in why crime, though enticingly lucrative, seldom pays off in the long run. A cautionary tale wrapped neatly in the message of ensuring your valuables—and moral compass—are always “out for delivery” to the right destinations.