Blount Co. Sheriff: FedEx driver made at least 6 trips to ravine; could face multiple charges

BLOUNT COUNTY, Ala. (WBRC) - UPDATE: Investigators with the Blount County Sheriff’s Office have determined a FedEx driver made at least 6 trips to a ravine to dump packages. About 450 victims have been identified and the suspect could face multiple theft of property charges.

A FedEx spokesperson said, “In addition to cooperating with law enforcement, we have reviewed this situation and can confirm that the individual involved is no longer providing service on behalf of FedEx Ground.”

UPDATE: FedEx crews arrived Thanksgiving morning to pick up hundreds of packages that were tossed into a ravine in Blount County.

The crews removed all the packages before 10:30 a.m.

These are some of the images of those packages:

FedEx issued a statement Thursday in response to the discovery:

“The security of our customers’ shipments is a top priority and we are committed to treating our customers’ packages with the utmost care. We are taking steps to recover and transport the affected packages as quickly as possible. In addition to cooperating with law enforcement, we are conducting a review of this situation and will take the appropriate action. Customers with questions about their shipments can track their packages by visiting http://fedex.com.”

UPDATE from Blount County Sheriff Mark Moon:

ORIGINAL: The Blount County Sheriff’s Office said hundreds of missing FedEx packages were thrown into a ravine.

Authorities says 300 to 400 boxes of packages were thrown off of the ravine at River Oak Trail.

“There’s a river down by this area and it was down the ravine. Down towards the river. None of the packages made it to the river. The packages are obviously have not been there longer than one or two days,” Sheriff Mark Moon said.

One family who lives nearby is missing four packages including an X-box. The family says they work too hard for something this to happen.

“It’s heartbreaking that someone would take advantage of people. When they’re supposed to be delivering kids toys to them for Christmas and people don’t care and would just drop our hard-earned money..thousands of dollars worth of things just off in a hole. I don’t see what kind of person can do that,” Andrea Finchum, who is missing packages said.

“The price of everything is going up and we just sit here and work, work, work trying to take care of our families and you get stuff like this and its kind of a slap in the face. That people don’t have the respect for other people’s goods. They just throw them off in a ditch somewhere,” Chris Finchum, a resident said.

We reached out to FedEx for more information. The sheriff’s office is working with FedEx to try and track down the driver. The sheriff tells us FedEx will be back Thursday morning to pick up the packages. Meanwhile, a deputy will be there overnight to keep thieves away.

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