Holy frijoles! Texas officials have arrested a county employee and charged him with stealing $1.2 million worth of fajitas over a nine-year period.
The Cameron County District Attorney’s office booked Gilberto Escaramilla, an employee of the local Juvenile Justice Department, for first degree felony theft, according to the Brownsville Herald. A search of his home found packets of fajitas in his refrigerator.
The beef bust came when a delivery driver called the Juvenile Justice Department’s kitchen to alert them of an incoming order of 800 pounds of fajitas. Problem is: the kitchen doesn’t serve fajitas.
That’s when the driver said he’d been delivering them there for nine years.
Escaramilla allegedly admitted to the crime when confronted by the department. He was arrested in August and made bond, but was charged with the more serious first-degree theft last week, after officials learned the extent of amount he had stolen.
The Texas paper reports that officials say they believe Escaramilla has been reselling the fajitas, rather than gorging himself on the Mexican favorite. Two customers, they say, are assisting with the investigation.
“If it wasn’t so serious, you’d think it was a Saturday Night Live skit, but this is the real thing,” said District Attorney Luis V. Saenz, tells the Herald. “He would literally, on the day he ordered them, deliver them to customers he had already lined up.”