It 's the busiest stretch of the mailing season from mid - November through Christmas . But for the United Parcel Service , one of its drivers not only focused on the timely delivery of packages , but also helped Philomath police nab a bad guy . The UPS driver , who regularly serves the Philomath route but asked that he not be identified , offered a tip to police on Nov. 17 that he suspected identity theft at a College Street address . " The reason he suspected is because that particular unit and the one next to it were empty , " Philomath Police Sgt . Ken Rueben said . " But every day , he was delivering boxes to these locations with different names . So , he said , ' I know the people that lived there before and the people that lived there before them and these people 's names are not the people on the packages . ' " UPS supplied a list of names of deliveries to the address and although the contents of the packages were unknown , they originated from retail stores such as Office Depot and Sears . The driver then returned to police with more useful information . " He came in another day and said , ' I think the guy living in 1407 ( College St. ) is the guy that 's ordering this stuff , ' " Rueben said . " Because he saw the guy come out and he was looking around , and then a lady came out who ends up being the suspect 's mom . She came out and said , ' it 's my son , he 's a criminal ' and basically said ' hey , he 's done this before . ' ... So he reports this to us . " Police researched the man 's name , Richard Anthony Upshaw , and discovered he was the suspect in similar activities in the Fresno , California , area . A bit of confusion surrounded the whole situation because Upshaw , 42 , was actually investigated in July by the Benton County Sheriff 's Office . A case report shows Upshaw was renting a space and living in a recreational vehicle on the Philomath Frolic rodeo grounds . The first contact with Upshaw involved a domestic dispute call , which resulted in his arrest for violating a restraining order . An investigation soon followed and included interviews , property seizure and involvement of the U.S. Secret Service in California . Seized evidence pointed to identity theft and counterfeiting . The end result turned out to be 18 months of probation for Upshaw after a no contest plea to four felony charges . Fast forward to the Philomath PD 's investigation , which determined that Upshaw was living in an RV parked behind four housing units at the 1407 College St. address . The man 's connection to Philomath was his mother , who was living in one of the four apartments . Following interviews and phone calls , police learned that the name of a woman living with Upshaw was using the identity of a victim from the robbery of a Liberty Tax Service in Fresno . Various records were stolen , including income tax forms . " These people started getting credit cards opened up in their name , typical identity theft type of thing , " Rueben said . " What makes this guy interesting though , is he changed all these people 's addresses to addresses here . " Upshaw apparently started applying for credit cards with all types of details about the Liberty victims _ names , dates of birth , social security numbers , home addresses and more . Police learned of another investigation in Scotts Valley , California , that also resulted in Upshaw 's arrest . That occurred in May and included four felony charges _ forgery , making fictitious checks , identity theft and methamphetamine possession . The Scotts Valley Police Department did not prosecute while awaiting word from the Secret Service about the ongoing federal case . A California grand jury indicted Upshaw on Dec. 4 on several counterfeiting charges . Philomath PD arrested him on Dec. 8 after being contacted by the Secret Service . Pause Current Time 0:00 / Duration Time 0:00 Loaded : 0%Progress : 0%0:00 Fullscreen 00:00 Mute He was later transferred to U.S. custody in Portland with eventual extradition to California . " They told us not to do any more investigation on the state case until they 're finished with their federal stuff , " Rueben said . If convicted , Upshaw faces serious time on the federal charges , perhaps 20 or more years . As a result , it 's possible the local case against him would not continue , Rueben said . " We put a call out to our local agencies that are getting $ 100 bills coming through and we 've got five now that we think are him , " Rueben said back on Dec. 12 . " We 've got stuff to file on him if we need to . " Filing a state case against Upshaw really would n't serve a purpose other than documentation , Rueben said . " I contacted all of the victims _ _ they 're all victims before in the Scotts Valley and Fresno cases , so they 've all got their credit cards changed and credit histories blocked , etc . , " Rueben said . In the end , it was the tip offered by the UPS driver that set the stage for Upshaw 's arrest in Philomath on Dec. 8 " These UPS guys know what 's going on and if they see something suspicious ( they take action ) , " Rueben said . " This guy could 've really ripped off a bunch of people . If he would 've gotten established and started ripping off people around here , identity theft can ruin your life . " ;