Man Steals $1.2 Million in Fajitas in Scam That Lasted Nine Years

One employee of the Cameron County Juvenile Justice Department in Texas has been arrested after he allegedly stole $1.2 million worth of fajitas over the last nine years, despite the fact that the facility doesn’t serve fajitas.

The department discovered Gilberto Escamilla’s nearly decade-long theft on Aug. 7, when he took the day off for a doctor’s appointment. While he was out, a Labatt Food Service driver called to confirm an 800-pound order of fajitas he was scheduled to deliver to the department kitchen, the Brownsville Herald reports.

When a woman told him they didn’t order or serve fajitas at the facility, the driver said he had been delivering fajitas to the Juvenile Justice Department regularly for the past nine years.

The woman told her supervisor of the incident, then the department found more evidence that Escamilla had been collecting the food as a company line item, funded by taxpayer dollars.

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“When Mr. Escamillia reports to work the next day, he is confronted with the discussion and he admits he had been stealing fajitas for nine years,” Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz told the Brownsville Herald.

The following day, Aug. 9, Escamilla was arrested after the District Attorney’s Office Special Investigations Unit searched his home, finding packets of fajitas in his refrigerator.

“If it wasn’t so serious, you’d think it was a Saturday Night Live skit,” he added. “But this is the real thing.”

Escamilla’s arrest was based on the single order of fajitas valued between $2,500 and $30,000, qualifying it as a state jail felony. But further investigation by the District Attorney’s office found that, in total, the former employee had stolen $1,251,578 worth of fajitas.

“He would literally, on the day he ordered them, deliver them to customers he had already lined up,” Saenz said. “We’ve been able to uncover two of his purchasers, and they are cooperating with the investigation.”

Escamilla was arrested Tuesday, Oct. 17, on the charge of first-degree theft felony.

This investigation has also revealed a “total failure” of the Juvenile Justice Department’s chain of command, Saenz said. The group has been consistently exceeding its line item budget, but no auditor or supervisor caught the discrepancy, even though they signed off on the budget breakdowns.