A man who stole more than $1.2 million worth of fajitas was sentenced Friday to 50 years in prison for his theft.
Gilberto Escamilla was sentenced to 50 years behind bars after he was found guilty of ordering the fajitas to his workplace at the Darrel B Hester Juvenile Detention Center in Texas, and then reselling them for personal profit, The Dallas Morning News reported.
The 53-year-old pleaded guilty Friday, telling the court that the operation started out small but expanded until it was out of control.
"It got to the point where I couldn't control it anymore," he said, adding that his actions were "selfish."
Escamilla was arrested last year when, in his absence, a driver from Labatt Food Service in Harlingen contacted the detention center's kitchen to let them know that their 800-pound delivery of fajitas had arrived, The Brownsville Herald noted.
The juvenile detention center does not serve fajitas, and suspicions were raised when the driver told an employee that he had been delivering the dish there for the past nine years, according to The Dallas News.
Escamilla was confronted the following day at work, where he confessed to stealing the fajitas and was immediately dismissed.
The following day he was arrested, when officers searched his home and discovered packages of the stolen food in his refrigerator.
Cameron County Assistant District Attorney Peter Gilman said it was a first of its kind and that he wanted a lengthy sentence to deliver a strong message to the public that theft would not be tolerated in any form.
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