Tornado Victims' Gift Cards Stolen From UPS Store

Alpharetta Police say an owner of a UPS Store franchise is under arrest for stealing gift cards meant to help tornado survivors.

A statement from George Gordon with the Alpharetta Public Safety Department explains that a customer came into a UPS Store in John's Creek with a stack of gift cards to ship to tornado-torn Tuscaloosa, Alabama, which was hit with deadly tornadoes April 27.  The shipper was sending them to a relative in Tuscaloosa, who would disperse the cards to storm victims.

"An employee of the Johns Creek UPS Store had told the patron 'they' would box them up and mail them," says Gordon's statement.  Police say there were more than 50 cards totaling thousands of dollars in value.

But when the customer checked with her relative on the status of the gift cards "weeks later," she was told that they had never arrived, so she investigated to find out what had happened.

"The patron had recorded the card numbers, and went to the store of purchase at a Target location in Roswell.  She was informed some of the gift cards were used at another Target store in Alpharetta," and contacted police, says Gordon.  "Based upon the investigation, the owner of the John's Creek UPS store and a female accomplice were taken into custody today for the theft of the gift cards."

Edward Michael Copenhaven and UPS store employee Margaret Kate Carlisle face multiple felony counts of theft by taking.

"Stealing from people who lost most of their belongings, their assets, in this tornado event, that's just incomprehensible," Gordon tells WSB.

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