Hilton Head UPS employee arrested for stealing packages and a $1500 phone, police say
Reports earlier this summer of a series of thefts at Hilton Head’s north-end post office have now spread to a nearby United Parcel Service (UPS) location.
An employee at a UPS processing facility on Hilton Head was arrested on October 2 for allegedly tampering with and stealing packages intended for delivery to local customers, according to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
Marcus Stineman, 39, whose home address is in the Willow Brook subdivision of Sun City, was employed as an assembly line worker at the north-island UPS Customer Center. He was charged with fraudulent breach of trust and bond was set at $2,125 that afternoon. He had not posted bail as of Wednesday afternoon, jail records show.
In the weeks preceding Stineman’s arrest, the location received several reports of packages being tampered with, opened or stolen completely. Upon further investigation, Stineman was found to be a “common denominator” in the incidents as he was consistently stationed at assembly lines where items had gone missing, according to Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Master Sgt. Daniel Allen.
When a loss prevention representative called Stineman to her office the morning of Oct. 2, he attempted to stash away his lunch bag before the meeting, Allen said. Inside the bag was a package with a $1,500 iPhone he had nabbed from the assembly line, according to the report. Stineman claimed he had taken the package “with the intent of giving it to management.”
When asked by a deputy if he had ever stolen mail from the facility, Stineman replied “yes, but not today.” After UPS management told police they wished to pursue criminal charges, Stineman was arrested and searched for additional contraband packages.
The location’s loss prevention staff told investigators Stineman was a person of interest in multiple other instances of package tampering and theft, and that management would continue looking into the case. As of Wednesday, the Sheriff’s Office had not been contacted by UPS to pursue additional charges, Allen said.
A loss prevention representative from the north-island location, located on Hunter Road, did not immediately respond to a request for comment left via voicemail Wednesday afternoon.
Stineman’s arrest comes in the wake of another Hilton Head mail debacle earlier this summer, when an employee at the island’s north-end United States Post Office was reportedly “removed” from the location and accused of stealing cash and checks from islanders’ mail. Although U.S. Postal Service officials have not yet verified the allegations, emails from the Office of Inspector General obtained by the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette confirmed the female employee was under investigation for the theft of gift cards and checks. Ten minutes by car is all that separates the post office and UPS office.
A spokesperson for Special Agent L. Paul King of the Office of Inspector General, whose Columbia office is investigating the Postal Service allegations, said the agency could not offer updates on the “open criminal investigation.”
This story was originally published October 11, 2023 at 3:48 PM.
