An e-scooter rider caught the attention of an Exeter Township police officer last week when he pulled into the parking lot of a convenience store wearing a FedEx jacket and an M95 mask.
When the man left the store moments later on Oct. 21 carrying a newly retrieved package, Officer Daniel J. Gines, who was parked in the store lot, saw him driving the e-scooter illegally on public roads.
Police said the rider crossed Route 422 from Sunset Lane and continued northbound in the southbound lane of Pineland Road while talking on a cellphone, prompting Gines to initiate a traffic stop.
According to the criminal complaint:
The rider, identified as 27-year-old Wascar Gomez Hernandez, told the officer that he worked for FedEx and had picked up a package for himself. Gines found that claim suspicious because Gomez Hernandez was from Newark, N.J., about a two-hour drive from Exeter.
Gomez Hernandez handed the package to Gines, and the shipping label showed it was addressed to a female customer.
Further investigation revealed that the woman had come to Birdsboro Mart to pick up the package, which contained an Apple iPad Air computer tablet she had purchased for about $1,800.
When she arrived, however, she learned the package had already been given to Gomez Hernandez after he told a store clerk it belonged to him. Investigators determined none of the packages at the store were addressed to Gomez Hernandez.
After being detained, Gomez Hernandez admitted he had traveled from New Jersey and was working with another individual who provided him with tracking numbers for packages to retrieve. He told officers that he was paid $100 for each package he picked up.
Further information was unavailable.
Gomez Herndanez was free on $10,000 bail to await a hearing following arraignment on Oct. 21 before District Judge F. Richard Drumheller in Reading Central Court. Gomez Herndanez faces charges of theft by deception and theft by unlawful taking. Additionally, he faces summary counts of driving an unregistered vehicle on a public road, using a cellphone while operating a motor vehicle and failing to keep right.