Every workplace has its perks—that occasional free coffee, a personalized office space, maybe the serene satisfaction of alphabetizing. For Antwone Tate, a FedEx employee based in Memphis, Tennessee, it seems the job also came with a hidden treasure map, or so he thought. The employee allegedly embarked on a side hustle involving anything but typical workplace benefits: diamonds, gold, and century-old baseball cards. While most folks clock in and out with the occasional grumble about TPS reports, Tate allegedly took a different approach, with a motto more along the lines of “finders keepers.”
It all began to unravel when FedEx’s Loss Prevention at the Memphis Hub caught wind of mysterious package disappearances on May 27. With a keen, Sherlockian eye, investigators meticulously pieced together the package puzzle and set off on a chase hotter than an Amazon Prime Day sale.
The first missing piece of the mysterious package puzzle was a glistening $8,500 diamond ring, a gem likely destined to make someone very happy—or, in Tate’s case, make him some quick cash. The second item delved into classic treasure trove territory with nearly $14,000 in gold bars gone MIA. Following the glittery contrail, officials tracked these pieces to their unceremonious second home—a local pawn shop. It didn’t take too many elementary deductions to know the connection was as blatant as an ‘open sesame!’ His attempt at anonymity was thoroughly foiled when he decided to use his real driver’s license to offload these items.
Surely, such an escapade couldn’t end without a trip into the vintage. Channeling his deepest Indiana Jones, Tate also reported making off with a package filled with historical cardboard gold—a collection of rare baseball cards. The haul included treasures like a 1915 Cracker Jack Chief Bender and a 1933 Goudey Sport Kings Ty Cobb. To sports enthusiasts, these items valued at approximately $6,800 are as prized as a first edition comic book to a collector. Unfortunately, brainy as Tate was in devising his plot, his tactics to monetize, well, weren’t quite as polished.
In a twist that surprised absolutely no one, the cards showed up on eBay (arguably the world’s most public online marketplace) under the seller name antta_57. This handle might as well have read “iamguilty_100” because the virtual paper trail led right back to Tate, dancing like neon signs—alerting investigators and collectors alike to his relic pilfering escapades.
Antwone Tate now finds himself in legal quicksand, quick to sink him with charges of theft of property in this high-stakes, albeit slightly clumsy, heist. As corporate dramas go, FedEx responded with all the subtlety of a Gregorian chant—they swiftly dismissed him from his position, issuing a statement that stealing is notably absent from their company handbook of job duties, cloaked in a corporate-speak version of “don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”
The story serves as a reminder to those eagerly watching their tracking updates. If your awaited parcel suddenly becomes a ghost in transit, check eBay adroitly—especially listings by any suspiciously similar names. Pirates in treasure hunts have long since upgraded from maps to URLs, it seems.
In the end, what makes this saga even more intriguing is how it speaks volumes about the inherent risks associated with trust and technology in modern logistics. With so many packages crisscrossing the globe every day, the occasional rogue employee might see a tempting array of possibilities. However, in today’s world, where digital breadcrumbs lay everywhere and connections are just a surveillance camera or a transaction record away, justice in these cases is nearly as inexorable as a Google Search.
Let this tale of digital-age piracy and remarkable hubris serve as a cautionary jest for all would-be treasure seekers: treasure hunting is best left to the realms of fiction, or at the very least, well away from one’s day job. Discovering these hidden gems the honest way might not sparkle as brightly, but it sure helps keep one’s spot on the right side of the law (and employed).
