A Leesburg man arrested for allegedly stealing a package from his neighbor’s porch told police he thought the box was intended for him.
Jesus Javier Negron Alvarez, 44, was charged with of petit theft (one prior conviction) and burglary (curtilage of an unoccupied dwelling) after the incident, which was reported around 3 p.m. Sunday at an undisclosed residence in Leesburg.
The female victim told the responding officer she received an alert on her cell phone from Shein, a clothing brand store, advising that her items were delivered to her front door at around 1:30 p.m. A still photo from her security camera showed the package on the porch, according to an arrest report from the Leesburg Police Department.
At about 1:47 p.m., the victim observed a photo of a man later identified as Alvarez approaching her residence. The next image was of the package missing from the porch, the report said.
The victim initially believed the suspect to be Alvarez’s son, so she contacted Alvarez at his residence when she returned home. She asked Alvarez to return the package, but he denied having it and refused to speak with her further. The victim then contacted law enforcement to request they speak with him and try to get him to return the package, according to the report.
The victim said during the interview, she heard what sounded like Alvarez’s door opening and quickly shutting. She went to his front door and saw the missing package lying on the ground. All of the ordered items were there except one purple high-heel shoe. The victim advised that she intended to prosecute for the $63.75 worth of items, the report said.
The officer contacted Alvarez’s son at his residence and informed him of the missing shoe, to which he appeared confused. He went back inside the house and returned with the shoe. He said he found it in the garage but didn’t know anything about the missing package. He said his two siblings and his father live with him, and his father could have been the one who took the package. He then went inside and retrieved Alvarez, the report said.
When speaking with the officer, Alvarez admitted to taking the package. He said he received an alert from Walmart that an item he ordered was delivered to his front porch. Alvarez said he thought the package was delivered to the wrong residence and assumed the victim’s package was his, according to the report.
Alvarez said he took the package from her porch without checking the name on it and went back to his residence. Once he opened it, he realized it wasn’t his and tried to throw it away. He said he denied the victim’s accusation out of fear of getting in trouble, the report said.
Alvarez was taken to the Lake County Jail and released after posting $6,000 bond.
