FedEx Delivery Driver Shot in Denver Carjacking
A FedEx driver was hospitalized Monday after being shot during a reported carjacking of the delivery truck he drove in Denver.
The 4:30 p.m. shooting occurred in a residential area about five miles northeast of downtown Denver, according to the Denver Police Department. The driver, whose name and age have not been released, was transferred to a local hospital after being shot. Police said that the driver’s injuries were not life-threatening.
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Officers recovered the stolen delivery truck about two miles away from where the carjacking site.
The case remains under investigation, including whether anything was stolen from the vehicle. As of Wednesday afternoon, police hadn’t made any arrests.
“We are concerned for the well-being of our team member and we are fully cooperating with investigating authorities,” a FedEx spokesperson told Sourcing Journal. “As this is an ongoing investigation, any additional questions should be directed to law enforcement.”
Delivery drivers have had to keep their heads on a swivel in recent weeks. An Amazon delivery driver was kidnapped in San Ramon, Calif., on Nov. 18, but was unharmed. Earlier this month, four separate carjacking and cargo theft incidents occurred in the span of just six days—involving Amazon, FedEx and UPS drivers.
The carjackings are part of a bigger cargo theft problem pervading the U.S., particularly during the holiday season. Prior to the Denver event, CargoNet data indicated that between 2018 and 2022, 126 theft incidents occurred from the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday.
In the third quarter of 2023, CargoNet recorded 692 cargo theft incidents across the U.S. and Canada, a 59 percent jump when compared to the year prior. In total, thieves stole over $31.1 million in shipments during the three-month period.
Elsewhere in the logistics industry, the unraveling of a Ponzi scheme took down the owner of a sham trucking company.
Franklin Ray, a 52-year-old man described by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York as a “recidivist fraudster,” was sentenced to more than 17 years in federal prison for his role in multiple wire fraud schemes, including swindling investors out of $40 million in a truck investment venture.
Over a 10-month period from June 2021 until April 2022, Ray admitted to defrauding 275 investors in his company, CSA Business Solutions LLC, headquartered in Imlay City, Michigan. While Ray purported that CSA Business Solutions was a trucking and logistics company, telling investors that he had 4,704 trucks and 4,909 drivers on staff, the firm only had two trucks and four drivers.
According to court documents, Ray persuaded individuals to enter into contracts with CSA Business Solutions by stating that the company would procure and operate a truck for each $20,000 contributed by an investor. Ray also fraudulently claimed to have purchased over 2,000 trucks with the investments.
Ray told investors that the trucks would perform delivery services for a multinational e-commerce company and/or a multinational shipping company. In exchange for the investment, they would receive 77 percent of the net income derived by that truck over a seven-year period. Investigators say the truck reports sent to investors were fabricated and that the company never operated more than a few trucks.
Federal prosecutors also claim Ray continued to operate the scheme after his arrest in March 2022, collecting another $1.9 million from investors through April.
Ray’s crimes impacted other businesses too. He fraudulently induced a New York City-based real estate agency to pay $175,000 in startup costs to establish a joint venture between it and CSA Business Solutions. Ray allegedly spent the funds on personal expenses, including private airplane trips. The joint venture was never formed.
In addition to the prison term, Ray, of Canton, Mich., was sentenced to five years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $42.2 million and several assets, including a 1968 Chevy Camaro. The defendant was also ordered to pay restitution in an amount to be determined.
Ray already pled guilty to four counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft back in March, and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres to 212 months in prison.
Ray previously served a two-year federal prison sentence from 2008 to 2019 for stealing from the trucking companies where he had worked.
