IRVING, Texas – An man with a lengthy criminal history is in custody after Irving police interrupted a mail theft in progress and arrested him following a brief foot pursuit at an apartment complex near Lake Carolyn.
On December 10, 2025, Irving police officers were dispatched to a reported mail theft at the mail room of The Carolyn Apartments, located at 900 Lake Carolyn Parkway. When officers arrived, they observed three individuals matching the description provided by the reporting party.
Two of the suspects were detained without incident. The third suspect turned away from officers and ran in the opposite direction. Officer Mia-Alena Sandoval yelled, “Police, stop!,” but the suspect continued fleeing.
Officer Sandoval pursued the suspect and temporarily lost sight of him. During her search of the area, she located the man hiding in nearby bushes and was able to take him into custody without further incident.
The suspect was identified as 37-year-old Lance Preston Carter. While in custody, Carter admitted he had consumed fentanyl while hiding in the bushes, knowingly destroying evidence to impair its availability during the investigation.
A check through the National Crime Information Center revealed Carter had multiple outstanding regional arrest warrants, which were later confirmed. A search incident to arrest also uncovered a credit card not in his name and several packages stolen from the apartment complex.
Carter was arrested and charged with evading arrest or detention with a previous conviction, mail theft, fraud for possession of stolen identifying information, and tampering with evidence. His prior evading arrest conviction stemmed from a Dallas County case in which he was convicted in October 2019.
After being booked into the Irving Jail, officers learned Carter was already on probation for a theft conviction. As a result, he was also charged with a probation violation.
Court records show that on May 8, 2025, Carter pleaded guilty in an agreed plea deal to theft of property valued under $2,500 with two or more prior convictions after stealing from a CVS store. He was sentenced to two years of deferred probation. In August 2025, Dallas County Judge Elizabeth Frizell issued a warrant for his arrest for violating probation.
On December 11, Carter was transferred to the Dallas County Jail, where he remains in custody with no bond set.
According to police records, Carter has a long history of arrests across Dallas, Denton, and Tarrant counties involving car thefts, home burglaries, and evading arrest.
