Former UPS Driver Convicted of Stealing Gun Shipments

A former UPS driver who stole dozens of rifles and pistols he was supposed to deliver to Inland Empire retail outlets was convicted today of federal gun theft charges.

A Riverside jury deliberated three hours before finding 37-year-old Curtis Ivory Hays of Rancho Cucamonga guilty of all 15 felony counts on which was indicted, including theft of firearms in interstate commerce, conspiracy, possession of stolen firearms and receipt of goods stolen in interstate commerce.

U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips scheduled a sentencing hearing for March 30. Hays is facing a maximum statutory sentence of 115 years in federal prison, though prosecutors acknowledged that, with no prior convictions, he’s likely to be sentenced to less than half that time.

“I am happy with the jury’s verdict, and I think it sends a message that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated,” Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Carlo DiCesare told City News Service.

Hays’ co-defendant, 35-year-old Dennis Dell White of Moreno Valley, pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy to commit a felony. He’s slated for sentencing on May 4.

In December 2010 and again between May and August 2012, the longtime friends worked in concert to steal and fence 72 guns, as well as jewelry and mobile phones -- all carried aboard one of the UPS delivery trucks that Hays drove, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

He was fired in January 2013 after federal agents began their investigation. He had worked for UPS more than 15 years.

Hays would depart his Ontario-Rancho Cucamonga route to rendezvous with White, sometimes in Moreno Valley, where firearms would be taken off the delivery truck and placed in White’s possession, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors said White would either sell the stolen guns himself or turn them over to friends to sell for him and Hays.

Most of the stolen merchandise was bound for Turner’s Outdoorsman, a mega sporting goods outlet alongside Interstate 15 in Rancho Cucamonga. A few of the guns, however, were supposed to be delivered to other retail establishments, including Costco.

Court documents show that among the stolen guns were 34 Kimber .45- caliber semiautomatic pistols, five Benelli Super Nova 12-gauge shotguns and 20 Browning .22-caliber Buck Mark pistols.

According to DiCesare, investigators have since recovered three of the stolen guns.

Federal agents got a major break in the case in August 2012, when a Riverside County sheriff’s deputy arrested a convicted felon at the man’s Moreno Valley apartment as part of an unrelated investigation. During a search of the dwelling, items connected with the gun thefts were found. The felon named names, culminating in the identification of Hays and White as suspects, according to court papers.

Ontario police and agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives pieced together the case after several months, seizing mobile phone records, as well as items stored by the two defendants at their homes and other locations.

In text messages downloaded from White’s phone, he bragged about selling “anything that’s not bolted down” and referred to several stolen rifles as his “new toys,” according to the government’s trial brief.

Hays’ attorneys maintained that he was not a participant in the thefts, implying that the firearms could have been stolen anywhere along the supply and delivery chain.

--City News Service

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