Scheme netted $680K in stolen property. Here’s what disappeared from Lakewood warehouse
The scheme involved disconnecting security cameras, a warehouse manager threatening workers who’d grown suspicious and secreting away $680,000 in stolen goods to fenced lots in Lakewood and Edgewood.
The target, Pierce County prosecutors say, was not cars or electronics but pallets, those ubiquitous wood-and-nail warehouse mainstays.
Charging documents filed June 5 say the two men at the heart of the scheme, which ran for three months in 2021, marketed the pallets on Craigslist as an “investment opportunity.” They got at least $203,000 from one customer, court records show.
Jeffrey R. Goodell, 42, was charged in Superior Court with leading organized crime, and both he and his co-defendant Paul T. Vickers Jr., 32, were charged with first-degree theft and first-degree trafficking stolen property. The thefts were charged as major economic offenses, an aggravating circumstance that could lengthen the defendants’ prison sentences if they are convicted.
Vickers was terminated from his position at a Birchstone Management warehouse several weeks before the theft was discovered, according to the declaration for determination of probable cause. Goodell also lost his job, but it’s unclear when he was let go or what the circumstances of his termination were. Records state he took a laptop from his office when he left and deleted records associated with the theft allegations, but the data had been backed up by the company.
Jeremy Leaf, the new manager of the Birchstone Management plant, told The News Tribune in an emailed statement that he couldn’t comment on the allegations or when Goodell lost his job.
Vickers was arraigned Tuesday afternoon and released on his personal recognizance. Goodell is to be arraigned next month. Attorneys for both defendants did not respond to requests for comment.
Defendant has federal criminal conviction
It isn’t the first time Goodell has been accused of orchestrating a complex criminal plan.
In 2013, he was sentenced to four years in federal prison for using his position as a banker to scam Tacoma Rescue Mission out of nearly $1.3 million by draining its bank accounts through unauthorized loans. At the time, prosecutors said he lied about his education to get his banking job and went so far as to shave his head and pose as a cancer patient to keep up the fraud.
Sometime after his release, Goodell got a job at Birchstone Management, formerly known as Greatwide Distribution Logistics, at 9704 47th Ave. SW. The North Carolina-based company has 15 warehouses in 11 states and Canada. According to its website, it primarily handles pallet and asset management, doing logistics for businesses such as Coca-Cola, FedEx, TopGolf and others. By August 2021, Goodell was a manager and had been working there for at least four years, according to the declaration for determination of probable cause. Records state he primarily supervised forklift drivers.
That month, an audit was conducted at the warehouse.
Prosecutors wrote in charging papers that the plant mainly used pallets from CHEP, a company that rents out its blue pallets to businesses rather than selling them. An executive for the company told NPR in 2014 that about 78 million of its pallets were circulating in the United States. According to an industry magazine story from 2010, CHEP typically requires full truckload orders of pallets, and users are charged a fixed fee to order them and a daily rental fee. Costs vary based on number of pallets and how long they’re kept, so it’s estimated at about $4.75 to $6 per trip.
Because CHEP offers pallets for rent, tracking them is a big part of the business. When CHEP officials showed up at Goodell’s warehouse, they allegedly found a trailer with seven skids of pallets that had been unaccounted for, which suggested record keeping had been altered. According to the probable cause document, Goodell was the only person at the warehouse who had access to modify the records.
Jobs threatened, cameras disconnected
The Lakewood Police Department investigated, and employees indicated that thefts had been going on for several months. One was reluctant to comply with the investigation without Goodell’s approval, and investigators allegedly found that more than three employees indicated Goodell had threatened to fire them if they didn’t go along with his requests.
According to the probable cause document, materials for pallets would arrive at the warehouse and Goodell would redirect them onto trailers not owned by the business. Prosecutors wrote in charging papers that text messages showed him directing people to do that, and when employees would question him, Goodell would threaten them with termination.
Security cameras were installed at the warehouse while the thefts were going on, but records state there was a technical issue where some had to be disconnected. Charging papers allege that the employee who set up the cameras was directed by Goodell to turn off exterior cameras that covered the area where items were stolen and loaded onto trailers.
A company investigation reportedly found the pallets a few miles away in a fenced area that had been rented to Goodell in the 2400 block of 104th Street Court South. There were several hundred pallets there, along with tools and pallets in various stages of assembly. More pallets were found with six trailers at a storage area in Edgewood, records state.
When law enforcement went to the 104th Street property, they met with a man who allegedly paid Vickers two payments, at least one in cash, of $100,000 for pallet materials after responding to a Craigslist ad. The man reportedly told investigators he knew Vickers from working with him in the past, and Vickers had offered to provide him forklifts, tools and materials to build pallets. According to the probable cause document, Goodell helped the man obtain contracts with Costco and a Lacey shipping company to sell what he assembled.
This story was originally published June 22, 2023 at 5:15 AM.
