Employee 'accidentally' orders nearly $140,000 worth of personal items to his company's Amazon account: Police

A man in Arizona was arrested after he was accused of charging nearly $140,000 worth of personal stuff to his company's Amazon account, in addition to other crimes.

Back in August, police were called to investigate whether Darius O’Neal Hickson of Florence, Arizona, used the Amazon corporate account owned by his employer, West Pharmaceuticals, to purchase hundreds of items totaling $137,000.

Between August 2020 and August 2021, O'Neal Hickson reportedly bought a variety of items — such as video games, consoles, clothing, and BB guns — and directed all of them to be delivered to the West Pharmaceuticals facility in Scottsdale where he worked. Though West Pharmaceuticals does regularly monitor employee purchases to its Amazon account, it flags only those worth more than $250, and all of O'Neal Hickson's purchases reportedly fell below that threshold.

When confronted with the accusations, O'Neal Hickson allegedly told investigators that he had "accidentally" forgotten to switch over to his personal account for the purchases. He also reportedly joked with his employer that he would repay the company using a "$5.99 a month payment plan."

In addition to making the Amazon purchases, O'Neal Hickson has been accused of turning around and reselling some of the Amazon items for an unspecified amount of money.

And those Amazon items are not the only items O'Neal Hickson has been accused of stealing and reselling. According to reports, police believe he also stole several computers from West Pharmaceuticals, which supposedly cost the company a total of $144,000, and then resold them, putting an additional $71,690 into his pocket.

West Pharmaceuticals has released a statement about the allegations:

We can confirm that Darius O’Neil Hickson worked for West Pharmaceutical Services from 2013 through August of 2021.
At West, we have a zero-tolerance policy for theft, and we are grateful that this situation was brought to our attention by an alert West team member. Because of the ongoing criminal investigation related to this case, we are not able to provide any additional information at this time.

KTVK has confirmed that O'Neal Hickson is no longer with the company.

O'Neal Hickson was arrested at his home on September 26 and charged with one count of theft, a class 2 felony. His bond was set at $2,500, which he must have paid since he is now free as he awaits prosecution.