The incident happened in August, and the FedEx employee, now identified by police as Mari, became suspicious when an elderly couple arrived at the store to ship a package out of state.
According to a Corvallis Police Department social media post, the couple was talking to someone on the phone when they arrived and appeared to be receiving instructions.
Instructions that included unusual delivery directions.
Mari honed in on this and alerted her manager about what she witnessed, who then held the package and contacted Corvallis PD.
It turns out the package contained more than $16,000 in cash.
After investigating, the Police Department determined that the couple were victims of fraud… well, almost victims. Thanks to Mari for going above and beyond, and to her manager as well for recognizing the situation and making a decision to alert authorities... the scam was foiled before the cash was sent.
Corvallis PD said in the post that, with assistance from other law enforcement agencies, the money was returned to the elderly couple. Mari was recently recognized by the department for her “observations and willingness to intervene.”
(Photo: City of Corvallis Police Department)
CPD has previously presented its Partnership Award to John Schneider and Megan Gregory-Goplen for performing CPR on a driver after a crash on April 20th.
In this incident, the driver, John Short, had suffered a medical emergency. The bystanders began CPR with instructions from 911 telecommunicator Anna Schulz before emergency responders arrived.
“The individuals we are honoring today chose to act,” Police Chief Jason Harvey said in the June announcement.
The announcement about Mari did not disclose the type of scam the couple almost fell victim to or the package’s intended destination. The mention of other agencies involved most likely refers to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service or the FBI.
We did not reach out for more info.
Although FedEx is a private carrier, scams involving shipments can still fall under federal mail-fraud law, which covers both commercial carriers and the U.S. Postal Service.
Often, scammers in similar scenarios to this may instruct victims to send cash by an “overnight” delivery service to a vacant address, allowing them to collect the package before the victims realize they have been deceived.
Mari and her manager are a solid reminder that our town’s protection can come from local workers and neighbors looking out for one another. She could have turned her head, shipped the package, and moved on with her day.
Instead, she was the one who delivered.
This article was written by Brian Lindensmith, but was approved by all of our writers at The Corvallis Inquirer. Feel free to send us your stories or articles to publish at: editor@corvallisnow.com
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