Boardman Police arrest UPS employee during probe into stolen shipments

An investigation into suspected theft of merchandise being shipped out of the Boardman UPS store has led to the arrest of one of its employees.

Police say they were conducting surveillance outside the store on Friday while investigating reports that several packages had been opened before being shipped.  Company officials told police that the missing goods included cash, jewelry, cell phones and other electronics.

Officers noticed that a car leaving the business had license plates that had expired two days before.

Police pulled the car over and searched it, finding eight cell phones, an Apple watch, two tablets, and a laptop. 

The driver, 23-year-old Santos Mercado of Youngstown, told police that he sells electronics on Facebook.

One of the recovered phones turned out to be from a shipment missing from UPS, according to police.

Mercado was arraigned on a charge of receiving stolen property and is due back in court next month.