Investigators say 1,799 iPhone 17 Pro Max devices were loaded into a rented truck after one suspect posed as a legitimate shipper at a FedEx facility in Doral.
DORAL, FL — Police on Tuesday released surveillance video they say shows a nearly $2 million iPhone theft at a FedEx shipping center in Doral, as investigators continued searching for a second suspect in a case that ended with one man’s arrest hours after the shipment disappeared.
The case has drawn attention because of the size of the loss and the simple trick police say opened the door to it. Investigators say the suspects used fake credentials, a convincing story about warehouse renovations and a rented U-Haul truck to collect 38 boxes of iPhone 17 Pro Max devices that should have gone to a freight company in Medley. One suspect, Jeffery Lydell Moore, 61, is jailed in Miami-Dade County. Police say Robert Rashawn Soto, 49, remains at large.
According to Doral police, the scheme began on March 17, when an employee at the FedEx Ship Center at 10000 NW 21st St. received a phone call from a man identifying himself as “John Washington.” The caller said he was connected to Union Logistics & Worldstar Nexgen, a Medley freight forwarder, and claimed the company’s warehouse was under renovation, so a scheduled shipment could not be delivered there. Police said the caller asked that employees be allowed to pick up the load instead. Investigators say a FedEx worker responded that anyone collecting the shipment would need government identification, an employee badge and an email from a company address. Two days later, police said, that paperwork appeared to arrive. Then a man authorities identified as Soto showed up in person, wearing what looked like a photo ID badge and carrying employee identification tied to the real warehouse manager’s name.
Police Chief Edwin Lopez said at a Tuesday news conference that Soto was able to gain trust before entering the delivery area. Lopez said the suspect “was able to build a rapport with an individual and then gain access to the delivery area.” Investigators say Soto was not alone. Moore and Soto arrived in a 20-foot U-Haul truck, and FedEx workers began loading the shipment into the vehicle. The boxes contained 1,799 iPhone 17 Pro Max devices valued at $1,896,674, police said. The loading stopped only after the real Union Logistics manager arrived at the facility and realized something was wrong. Police say the manager had been alerted by his regular FedEx driver that the shipment would not be delivered because pickup arrangements had supposedly been made. Once at the warehouse, the manager told employees to stop the men and hold them for law enforcement, according to the arrest warrant.
Investigators say the order came too late. As a FedEx employee radioed a co-worker to stop loading the truck, Moore and Soto got into the U-Haul and fled shortly before 10 a.m. Police say Moore was behind the wheel. The case then shifted from a warehouse fraud investigation to a highway pursuit built on technology. Authorities said the shipment included AirTags, and officers also used license plate readers and other tracking tools to follow the truck north along Interstate 75. The U-Haul generated location hits in Port Charlotte and Sarasota before officers narrowed its path in Alachua County, police said. At about 5:40 p.m. on March 19, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper and Alachua County sheriff’s deputies stopped the truck on northbound I-75. Moore was detained there, authorities said, and investigators recovered the iPhones from the back of the vehicle. Soto was not inside the truck, and police have not publicly said when or where they believe he got out.
The records released so far leave several questions unanswered. Police have not said how the suspects learned about the shipment or whether anyone with inside knowledge helped plan the theft. Investigators also have not publicly described how the fake badge and supporting documents were made, or whether the email used to back the pickup request came from a spoofed address, a compromised account or another source. What officials have described is a fraud that relied on routine logistics steps rather than forced entry or weapons. That detail matters in South Florida, where cargo theft cases often turn on paperwork, timing and access to shipping schedules. Lopez said Tuesday that the 38 boxes represented only part of the shipment the suspects might have taken. “That could have been 138 boxes,” he said. “So it would have been a lot more money.”
Moore, who police say is from Seneca, South Carolina, now faces first-degree grand theft, conspiracy to commit cargo theft and organized scheme to defraud charges in Miami-Dade County. After his arrest in north Florida, he was booked into the Alachua County Jail and later extradited south. Court records cited by local news outlets show he was returned to Miami-Dade last week and appeared before a judge on Saturday, when bond was set at $2.5 million. As of earlier this week, he was being held at the county’s Metrowest Detention Center. Police have not announced an arrest date for Soto and on Tuesday asked the public for help locating him. Lopez said someone in the community likely knows where Soto is and urged anyone with information to contact Doral police. Investigators have not said whether more arrests are expected, but the open search suggests the inquiry remains active and could widen if detectives uncover evidence of planning beyond the two men already named.
The video police released Tuesday adds a layer of calm to a theft built on speed. Rather than a smash-and-grab scene, authorities say the footage shows a man arriving with the look of a legitimate worker, moving through the shipping process and getting close enough to the cargo to take it. That presentation appears to be central to the case. In describing Soto, investigators say he impersonated the legitimate warehouse manager connected to the shipment and used fake credentials to make the pickup seem routine. Moore’s role, police say, was more direct once the boxes were moving: he drove the U-Haul away and was later found with the shipment still inside. For FedEx employees and freight companies, the episode appears to have exposed how quickly a false pickup can become a seven-figure loss when a request fits the normal pattern of business. Neither police nor the reports made public Tuesday said the phones had reached stores or consumers before the theft. Authorities said the shipment was recovered the same day.
For now, the case stands at a split point: one suspect in jail, one still missing and a recovered shipment that spared the consignee a much larger loss. Police say the search for Soto is continuing, and the next public milestone is likely any arrest announcement, court filing or updated briefing from Doral investigators in the days ahead.
Author note: Last updated March 31, 2026.