A 46-year-old man finds himself jailed after a woman’s Ring doorbell application caught him on camera taking a package of dog treats and toys that had been delivered to her porch.
McAllen police arrested Esequiel Alanis last Friday and charged him with theft of mail, failure to identify and tampering with government records.
The woman called police about 3:34 p.m. that day to report that her Ring doorbell application caught a man wearing a black cap, gray shirt, black jeans and white shoes grabbing a package off of a chair on her porch, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Police say she told them the man put the package in a white bucket and headed westbound in the 1900 block of Ebony Avenue.
Authorities later recovered the package, which included BARK Recipe Mac ‘N’ Jeez Dog Toy, BARK Taste Tested Turkey Leg Dog Toy, BARK Duck Ala Mutt Dog Treat and BARK Hard & Chewy Duck Stick — all valued at $50, the charging document states.
Police found the package after catching up with Alanis in the 100 block of North 23rd Street, authorities say.
When they made contact, Alanis told police his name was Esquivel Salas, according to police.
“Esquivel stated he was walking to the car wash to wash cars. Esquivel set his white bucket down and I noticed ‘BARK’ brand dog treats and toys inside in plain view. I asked Esquivel where he got the dog treats and toys from and he stated they were thrown in the alleyway,” the probable cause affidavit states.
The officer who wrote the report refers to Alanis by the false name he gave officers the day of his arrest. It wasn’t until the following day that police figured out they had been given a false name.
When confronted about taking the package, police say Alanis initially denied it, but when he was told he was caught on camera, he said “It’s just dog stuff. I didn’t think they wanted it.”
McAllen police arrested him and the next day, Saturday, Alanis would find himself facing two more charges in addition to mail theft.
“In Esequiel ‘s property, jail personnel also located a Texas Department of Criminal Justice Offender ID. The ID was clearly tampered as it had white out covering the letter ‘OFFENDER’ on it. The ID had Esequiel’s picture on it with his last name of SALAZAR tampered as well as it had white out covering the last two letters on his name to show SALAZ instead of SALAZAR,” the probable cause affidavit states.
It’s not immediately clear why jail records list his last name as Alanis as opposed to Salazar, the name McAllen police say is on his TDCJ identification.
Authorities say his date of birth was also tampered with.
Police then charged him with tampering with a government record and failure to identify.
He remains jailed on $5,000 in bonds on the charges, records show.
