By Josh Long

A 45-year-old former employee of Windstream who lives in North Carolina faces charges that he used customers’ information to open fraudulent accounts with retail companies and ordered merchandise from those businesses for delivery to abandoned homes.

Walter Darnell Austin of Mount Pleasant, N.C., turned himself into authorities after warrants were issued for his arrest, the Salisbury Post reported.

Investigators began to look into the matter after a neighbor alerted a division of the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office that packages were being delivered to an abandoned home through a commercial package delivery service, according to a Rowan County Sheriff’s Office report, which WBTV posted on its website. Investigators began surveillance at the home and found out that two packages had been delivered to the abode.

"After a short time a subject in a Windstream service van arrived and investigators watched the subject grab the packages and run back to the Windstream van and attempt to leave," the report said.

Investigators stopped Austin in the van, the report said, and later "recovered thousands of dollars in fraudulently obtained merchandises from Walter Darnell Austin’s office in Kannapolis."

Authorities allege Austin obtained old files of Windstream customer accounts to perpetuate a scheme they believe has been regularly occurring for the last year. The records were taken from a retail store in Kannapolis and believed to date back to the mid- to late 1990s, the Salisbury Post reported, citing Windstream spokesman Scott Morris.

Morris told the Salisbury Post that Austin is no longer employed at the company. He formerly worked as a network technician.

Windstream is cooperating with the investigation and trying to help in identifying potential victims, according to the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office report.