PINECREST, Fla. – A Miami man faced more than two dozen felony charges after Pinecrest police pulled him over and found a “high volume” of mail and packages in the backseat of his Cadillac SUV Friday.
According to Pinecrest police, an officer first saw the SUV, with its lights off and trunk open, along Southwest 114th Street, near 62nd Avenue, just after 9 p.m.
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Police said the driver, Lazaro Amay Mata, 40, tried to swerve into the oncoming lane of traffic when he noticed the officer, nearly hitting him.
An arrest report states the officer eventually pulled Mata over and saw the collection of mail and packages as he approached the vehicle.
Police wrote that when asked about the mail, Mata claimed “he was working for Uber by collecting mail from residences who did not pick up their mail and returning them to an Uber hut.”
They wrote that Mata later said “he had to scan the packages through the Uber app in order to document (them),” but when he was given his phone to show how the system worked, “he started going into YouTube and into the Uber app not knowing what to do.”
Mata “eventually stated that he didn’t know how to do it because it was his first time doing it,” and then allowed police to retrieve the mail, the report states. All of the mail belonged to Pinecrest residents, police said.
Police said Mata couldn’t keep his story straight throughout the traffic stop.
“At one point he stated he takes the mail to his mother, who is the registered owner of the vehicle and she makes sure the mail is taken to the ‘Uber hut,’” police wrote. “(In) another instance, (Mata) stated if he does not find what he needs to do with the mail, he was planning on discarding it. Shortly after, he stated he takes the mail to the postal office.”
Police said a U.S. postal inspector aided in the investigation.
Mata, who lives in Miami’s Flagami neighborhood, was arrested on 27 counts of unlawfully possessing five or more pieces of identification. Police also arrested Mata’s passenger, but a judge ordered the man released after finding no probable cause to charge him.
Mata was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $135,000 bond.