NH Man Accused Of Deleting Fedex Subcontractor Delivery Routes

LONDONDERRY, NH — A Manchester man is facing felony computer fraud charges after being accused of using a work computer, after being fired, to delete delivery routes for a subcontractor of Fedex.

On Jan. 12, a Londonderry police officer took a complaint from the owner of ERT Logistics, a subcontractor of Federal Express Ground in Londonderry, about a computer crime targeting his business. The man said Jonathan Butt, 37, of Alexander Drive in Manchester, had been fired on Jan. 6, for unreported reasons, but accused him of using a work computer to delete delivery routes.

The business owner had terminated Butt's computer access to Route Smart, an application the company used to assist it with Fedex deliveries. However, about 12 hours later, he accused Butt of gaining remote access to the program and deleting all of the information associated with the delivery routes. The owner told the officer Butt still had a company laptop and believed he was able to access the program from the computer, the affidavit stated, adding that he eventually returned the work computer.

As part of the investigation, the business owner submitted screenshots of text messages purported to be between himself and Butt from Jan. 6.

"Cleaned out dro," Butt was accused of writing. "Eric and Jeff can do it better Good luck."

"That's a prosecutable crime Johnny," the owner countered. "I am very disappointed with you."

"Crime? Not sure what you meant," Butt was accused of saying back. "Dro was my hard work Not just handing it over."

DRO, the owner told police, was short for "dynamic route optimization," and allowed the company to streamline pick-up and delivery, driver details, each vehicle's stops and counts, addresses, and other information. Butt, he added, worked for the company from December 2019, until Jan. 6, 2021, and stated he was assigned to handling the logistics for Route Smart.

As part of the investigation, the officer issued a search warrant of the app and was able to trace back the deleted assignments, time stamp log, and other information to Butt's computer user identification, the affidavit stated.

"There were several hundred listed actions in the log-in," the report said. "The action shown occurring in each event was listed as 'delete'."

The owner of the business stated in mid-March that the company paid $4,349 in overtime to employees who worked around the clock to fix the problem, the report stated.

A warrant was issued for Butt's arrest in mid-April and he was arrested on Monday on three computer-related offenses-fraud charges and a single count of criminal mischief, all felonies.

Editor's note: This post was derived from information supplied by the Londonderry Police Department and does not indicate a conviction. This link explains the removal request process for New Hampshire Patch police reports.

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