Shipping giant UPS investigates possible fraud in Hilton Head facility
In early June, the United Parcel Service (UPS) suddenly suspended deliveries to Daufuskie Island with little notice to residents and no clear explanation why.
For several days, the island without a bridge feared they would be an island without UPS — a disruption that hit home for small business owners and residents who rely on deliveries for essential goods. Islanders voiced their frustration to The Island Packet and on social media in the days that followed. Public outcry eventually reached the office of U.S. Senator Tim Scott.
Roughly a week later, UPS restored delivery service under a new three-year contract with Haig Point, a private community on north-end Daufuskie. Scott’s office confirmed they did place calls to UPS, although they could not say whether those calls yielded the service restoration.
Delivery operations will look different now for the small island community of about 500 residents, only accessible via a private ferry managed by Haig Point or a public ferry service. Instead of door-to-door service by a third-party contractor, packages will now be delivered and sorted at Haig Point, then dropped off at designated island mail rooms for pickup, according to a June 12 release from the private community.
While Daufuskie residents were relieved to have their service restored, many were still left wondering what caused the abrupt suspension in the first place.
Around the same time service was halted, a police report filed with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office revealed that UPS is investigating potential high-dollar fraud connected to the island’s previous delivery arrangement.
What does the police report say?
The report, filed June 3, summarizes an interview between a sheriff’s deputy and UPS security investigator Jennifer Parrott, who visited the Hilton Head Island sheriff’s office substation after receiving an anonymous tip.
Parrott said the tipster alleged that a supervisor at Hilton Head Island’s UPS operations facility had been over-reporting the amount of packages delivered to Daufuskie by a third-party contractor, potentially embezzling thousands of dollars from UPS over a period of years.
The contractor was hired in 2019 to deliver Daufuskie residents their mail, which was brought to the island by the private Haig Point ferry after processing at the Hilton Head facility, located on Hunter Road near the island’s airport.
The “large volume of packages” invoiced on behalf of the Daufuskie contractor seemed “suspicious” when compared to “historical numbers from Daufuskie Island,” Parrott told police. She estimated UPS could have lost up to $12,000 per month, easily upwards of $100,000, due to the “seemingly inflated” delivery numbers used for the alleged fraudulent invoices, according to the police report.
Invoices submitted on behalf of the Daufuskie contractor were labeled “pay immediately,” Parrott told police, which was out of the ordinary because UPS typically follows a 90-day payment cycle.
Lt. Daniel Allen of the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office said police were waiting to receive full documentation of the supposed fraud from UPS, which was conducting an internal investigation based on invoices spanning years. Company investigators would then inform police of their findings and whether they wished to pursue criminal charges.
Employees caught embezzling company funds in South Carolina commonly face the charge of breach of trust with fraudulent intent. If the amount stolen exceeds $10,000, the offense is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The investigation comes nearly two years after a Hilton Head-based UPS assembly line worker, Marcus Stineman, was arrested in October 2023 for allegedly tampering with and stealing packages while on the job at the island’s processing facility. He was charged with fraudulent breach of trust.
Stineman was later fined $50 after entering a plea of nolo contendere, which means he didn’t contest the charges but refused to admit guilt.
UPS response
Before deliveries resumed to Daufuskie, a UPS spokesperson confirmed with The Island Packet that the service disruption was temporary, but declined to provide further details, including the cause or expected duration of the suspension.
When asked whether the suspension was related to UPS’s broader restructuring — a national cost-cutting initiative in response to decreased Amazon volume — the spokesperson said it was not part of that “network reconfiguration.”
Since the newspapers obtained the police report, UPS has declined to provide comment or answer questions related to the investigation or the contents of the report, including questions related to the employment status of the UPS employee. A spokesperson said the company does not comment on vendor or personnel matters.
Jennifer Parrott did not respond to a request for comment.
The UPS employee and contractor specified in the police report have not been named in our reporting since they have not been charged with a crime.
This story was originally published June 27, 2025 at 9:52 AM.
