CLEVELAND — An Amazon delivery driver is grateful to be alive one week after he was carjacked at gunpoint while delivering packages. He spoke exclusively to 3News about the robbery that prompted a police pursuit and ended in a deadly crash on Interstate 90 in Cleveland.
When he started his new job at Amazon last month, delivering packages was just the kind of work Mike Mathes was looking to do to help pay the bills after retiring from his previous line of work.
"I was all excited," Mathes said. "Nothing I had ever done before, so I felt good about it."
But the excitement didn't last.
"Yeah, it lasted a couple weeks until that fatal night."
Last Wednesday night, about three weeks into delivering fulltime, Mathes was near the end of his shift in Cleveland Heights when he saw a man pick up a package he had recently dropped off. He didn't think much of it, but a few houses down the road he returned to his van and started to climb inside when someone approached him from behind.
"I had a gun pointed in my side," Mathes recalled. "He tells me if I moved, he'd blow my effing brains out right there, so I didn't move."
Mathes says the suspect — later identified at 23-year-old Jalen Jackson — then told him to get out of the van. As he was getting out, he slipped and fell.
"Soon as I hit the ground, I started praying. The tears were already rolling down my eyes. I thought this was it," Mathes remembered. "Thank God. I'm grateful that he chose not to put the bullet in the back of my head when I laid there on the ground. Very thankful, thankful to be here today."
As he prayed that he would be able to see his family again, the suspect took off, leading police on a chase through multiple communities and into Cleveland's west side. An officer arrived on the street where Mathes was within minutes, and Mathes listened on the police radio as officers followed the van the wrong way onto I-90, where the chase ended with sudden and tragic head-on collision that killed Akron Dr. Curtis Birchall in another car.
"It's just a tragedy. I feel bad for the doctor's family, you know, because he didn't get to come home that night. I did, he didn't. Why that happened, I have no idea," Mathes lamented. "My heart goes out to the family that lost their loved one."
Regarding Jackson, Mathes said he believes "they should really give him the max of everything he can get. I mean, he took a life for $200 worth of merchandise? It just wasn’t worth it."
Meanwhile, Mathes went back to work this week, a decision he said that was difficult to make.
"The first couple of nights I was off after that. The nightmares just reoccurred over and over, just played," he told WKYC, through tears. "I get emotional just thinking about it."
He's not sure how much longer he'll continue delivering packages, especially at night, but he's determined not to let that fatal night stop him from doing what he wants to do.
"He could have easily took my life, but he also took the essence of the enjoyment of what I did," Mathes said. "So if I let him win by not doing something that I wanted to do, he's won.
"And that's where I'll be at today — be out to deliver a few more smiles and try to get ready for when the night falls."
Mathes says Amazon has been very supportive from the time of the robbery to his return to work, connecting him to the resources he needs and helping him feel safe. In a statement to 3News from Amazon, spokesperson Alisa Carroll said, "This is a tragic incident and our thoughts are with the family of the motorist whose life was lost. We're offering support to the delivery driver involved in this crime and assisting local law enforcement as they investigate."
She continued by calling the incident "a tragedy and, while these crimes are rare across our network we continuously invest and will continue to invest in protecting drivers and community members, because even a single incident is one too many."
She also sent a list of Amazon policies for their drivers:
- Drivers should never make a delivery if they feel unsafe, but if an incident occurs or a driver reports feeling unsafe, we have a rigorous process in place to evaluate the incident and take action to prevent it from happening again.
- We provide 24/7 support for drivers on-the-road to help them make deliveries to customers. If something occurs that requires additional safety support, drivers can contact Amazon’s 24/7 Safety Helpline. In the rare case of emergencies, drivers are encouraged to call 911 immediately.
- Drivers receive de-escalation and safety training.
- Drivers are trained to never personally stop someone if they attempt to steal the delivery vehicle or packages.
- Drivers are reminded to lock their vehicles and take their keys with them while their making delivery.
- If customers ever have an issue with a delivery or package we encourage them to contact customer service 24/7 and we will help find a solution.