Law&Crime Sidebar - Brazen Mail Truck Thief Takes Police on Wild Chase

Episode Date: December 24, 2025

A man in Utah, Wilber Hernandez, was allegedly high on bath salts when he carjacked a U.S. Postal Service truck to flee what he claimed was a mob chasing him over a jar of diamonds. What started as a bizarre theft quickly escalated into a multi-jurisdictional police chase and a tense standoff with officers using non-lethal weapons. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber has details on how the federal case ended with a shorter sentence than expected.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code SIDEBAR at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/sidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, Alex Ciccarone, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrimeTwitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. A man in Utah, apparently undergoing some sort of crisis while high on drugs, made the decision to target a rather unconventional vehicle in a car jacket. That's right. When a mail carrier was out of his truck, Wilbur Hernandez, ran up and stole it. Sir, this is the police department.

Get out of the vehicle now with your empty hands. A short chase eventually led to a longer standoff and the suspect's case went all the way to federal court. But the sentence he received over the summer as part of a plea deal might surprise you. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. I gotta say this, if you think the crime stories

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experts will personally remove them. So if you care about protecting yourself online and I hope that you do, take your privacy back with incogny, use code sidebar for 60% off an annual plan. On February 5th, 2024, as stated by federal prosecutors in Utah, a man named Wilbur Castellanos Hernandez, quote, was acting weird. The now 33 year old was spotted in an apartment complex in Salt Lake City, apparently checking door handles and trying to break into cars. And when witnesses tried to chase him away, he headed for one of the closest getaway vehicles he could find, a U.S. Postal Service mail truck. And what ensued was a search across multiple local jurisdictions with a mail truck

sometimes hitting other cars as Hernandez careened around neighborhoods. Eventually, the chase ended with multiple officers taking Hernandez down in an area called Bountiful. Now, it did take a minute to sort out where Hernandez would be held, where he would be charged, but it was the U.S. government, the federal government, who won the jurisdiction over the case because U.S.PS is a government agency. And now that Hernandez's federal case is just wrapped up, Hernandez has been sentenced to time behind bars followed by deportation. We have got our hands on his indictment, as well as police reports and body-worn camera footage from Utah authorities. And they give us insight into what officers were dealing with that day, as well as why Hernandez

as himself says, he took off in a government vehicle. So we want to go back to February 2024 to an apartment complex in North Redwood Road in Salt Lake City. Police get a call about a suspicious person in the parking lot, and he was armed. A still image from a witness's cell phone video shows Hernandez holding a knife. According to a police report, when officers arrived, they found a postal delivery man, identified only as RW, but there was no mail truck. Quote, he stated that he was placing mail in the community mailbox at 594 North Redwood Road when he saw a bunch of people chasing a man.

He thought it looked weird, but said that area is notorious for random things happening, so he continued to place mail in the boxes. He then noticed the mail who was running, run around the mail truck, and jumped in. He started yelling, no, no, no, get out of there. But the mail kept looking for the keys to start the vehicle. And here's what Hernandez's federal indictment says. R.W. said he ran over to the mail truck and yelled at the suspect to get out of the vehicle. R.W. said that the suspect was holding a knife and pointed the knife at him,

threatening him and the other people there with it. R.W. said one of the witnesses used a piece of wood to try and hit the suspect to stop him, but the suspect was able to start the truck using the keys that had been left in the vehicle, and the suspect fled the area in the vehicle. The mail truck contained mail matter, including letters, packages, and mail addressed to other people, While driving through different Davis County jurisdictions, the mail truck was being reported to local police agencies as being driven recklessly and being involved in minor traffic accidents with other vehicles. And according to the indictment, Hernandez eventually admitted he was the one driving that truck, even apparently throwing people's mail out along the way. But USPS, they were able to use a GPS system in the truck to track him down. Police caught up with Hernandez on this road and bountiful. Take a look.

Get out of the car. Get out of the car. Get out of the car. Get out of the car. Get out of the car. Get out of the car. Get out of the car right now. 18.

He's trying to get away. We got a bomb gunpoint. 30, 27. So after crashing the mail truck into a police cruiser, Hernandez heads into a lot that appears to be under construction, flying right past confused workers. The officer follows Hernandez around the lot, even trying to cut him off at one point. But the bad news for Hernandez is there's only one way in and one way out. He gets boxed in back at the road, but now he's seemingly refusing to come out.

He allegedly gestured with the knife and the officers hit him with a taser. Now he retreated inside the truck. Sir, this is the police department. Get out of the vehicle now with your empty hands. Does anybody speak Spanish? Yes, you. Does anybody speak Spanish? Hey, back up!

Sir, this is the police department. Exce the vehicle with your hands empty. Show us your empty hands! Is there anybody that can get a pepperball? I think a pepperball just might get him to come out. out. This is the police department. Stop throwing stuff out of the vehicle. Show us your empty hands and exit the vehicle. We got the knife out. Boundful Victor 16, the knife he did have on his person. We did get off of him.

There's still a knife right down. We didn't pick it up. We just kicked it away. So that's that knife. This is the police department. Exit the vehicle with your hands empty and above your head. More officers start to arrive at the scene, bringing non-lethal weapons like pepper bombs and beanbag guns. And they call out to Hernandez in English and Spanish asking for him to come out with his hands up.

Per KSL TV's reporting, police fired about 14 beanbag rounds, 40 rounds of pepper sheper spray projectiles and use their tasers at least four times. Eventually, he dropped the knife and he surrendered. Now, officers, they swarmed Hernandez. They made sure he was no longer armed and dangerous before a more thorough search at a squad car. You good with it? They're going to be right contact with them. You got three hits.

They're on their way here. Yeah, I got two free. Good. They get them. They take off. They're off. They're off. Oh, they're up.

It's all right. Yeah. You don't want to be able to talk about. Oh, yeah, no, they want to be able to get me. Oh, if you know, look at all my family, but they're going to help me. See my family, but they're diamond. This is your military? How are you?

All right? Is this car? Huh? Is this car? What I'm going to see? Can you tell me to step out? Can you tell you step out? There you go.

Where is your other stuff? Ah, right? Okay, let's go there. Yep. Let me put my cuts first. We'll let me get that. Okay. We'll take that this, okay?

You know, you're going to play with us? No, I don't. If you're going to play with me, I'm going to go to go up. No, I want to go to me. Do you. Okay. Okay. No, if you're going to cooperate with you.

Okay. I'll go very, very, very, okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Govete. Govete. So over the phone, one of the responding officers relayed why paramedics were checking Hernandez over. No, no dog. He was hit a bunch by a pepperball, so he smells it. But he was wearing two of the coats. He took two coats out of the male back seat, and he was wearing those kind of semi-body on the run. And he would later be taken to the hospital to have a fractured arm and finger checked out. This is according to a salt lake police report. But he wasn't the only one hurt, during this escapade per KSLTV.

Hernandez apparently bit one of the officers during the struggle to the ground. Investigators photographed the knife on the ground. They took it into evidence. And at first, investigators had a hard time identifying Hernandez, who the government says was in the country illegally. According to the police report, the subject had provided multiple iterations

of a name and date of birth, but none of the combinations were returning as valid in police records. Once I arrived at the PSB and FBI liaison, was able to identify the subject with a mobile fingerprint scanner. The FBI also provided Salt Lake investigators with translation services once Hernandez was in that interrogation room. All right, Wilbur. So, Agent Thornton here is going to translate for us so we make sure we understand each other okay.

Okay? You're speaking? No, I'm speaking of Spanish? Yeah. No English? No, no. I'm going to here to help this, sir. Thank you.

I'm an agent of the FBI. And there is an agent for, eh, uh, uh, post them, for those couriers. So, yeah, I'm Detective Poles with Salt Lake City police. Detective Corps? Oh, okay. And this is, uh. Inspector Moore with the U.S. Postal Service and then our translator here is with FBI

Mr. Thornton agent Thorne okay so we obviously want to talk to you about what brought us all here today okay okay I was going to talk to you about what brought us all here today And the report lays out what Hernandez apparently told investigators. And I'll tell you right now, it's bizarre. Quote, Hernandez said he had been in the area 400 North leaving his girlfriend's house when he was walking around and found what he described as a jar of diamonds on the street. Hernandez said all of a sudden a group of about 10 people started chasing him for no apparent reason. Hernandez said he ran to a mail truck, which he jumped into.

Hernandez said he recognized the vehicle as a mail truck because it was white with mail logos on it and it had mail and packages in it. Hernandez said he was getting assaulted by the group of people now and he pulled out an object that looked like a knife, but he said it wasn't a knife, which he used to defend himself. Eventually later in the interview, Hernandez admitted that he had a knife in his jacket pocket, which he pulled out and used. So Hernandez faced two federal counts here, carjacking and mail theft. And according to court records, his trial was pushed back several times as attorneys reviewed all the information. But then, in June of 2025, Utah's 2nd District Court announced a plea had been struck. One of Hernandez's public defenders

submitted a filing ahead of sentencing that read, quote, Wilbur Costellanos Hernandez, through counsel, asked the court to impose the agreed upon sentence 30 months. While this is a substantial difference from the range suggested by the sentencing guidelines, then you usual facts of this case justify the difference. By his own admission, he was under the influence of some drug, likely bath salts. Mr. Hernandez is guilty of the carjacking offense, but this simply wasn't a conventional carjacking. He did take the mail truck for personal gain. By all appearances, he was just trying to flee an attack. Of course, his actions were not privileged. There's no justification or necessity defense, especially given what followed. But that separates

this case from those run-of-the-mill carjackings. And as part of the first, of the plea, the mail theft count was dropped. Hernandez was convicted of carjacking. He was sentenced the 30 months in federal prison. And according to that sentencing filing, Mr. Hernandez, a citizen of Mexico will return home when his sentence ends and he is deported. And that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcast. You can follow me on X or Instagram. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak. to you next time.

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