Federal officials say that a man used two different schemes to steal money from Home Depot and the Missouri Department of Labor.
In one plan, he stole about $35,100 worth of vinyl flooring from a chain of home improvement stores, according to the police. In another case, the man is suspected of stealing $142,423 from the Missouri Division of Employment Security.
Now, the 36-year-old man from Ste. Genevieve County has pleaded guilty to wire fraud, conspiracy to steal money, and being a felon in charge of a gun, according to a May 10 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri.
McClatchy News asked his defense lawyer for a response on May 11, but he didn’t answer right away.
Home Depot Theft
His signed plea deal says that he and another person started stealing from Home Depot stores in the St. Louis area on January 4.
Prosecutors said that he would put boxes of vinyl flooring in a shopping cart and then put “an inexpensive item” on top.
The tweet below verifies the news:
“At the checkout counter, (the man) paid for the cheap item but said he had already paid for the flooring online and showed a fake receipt,” officials said.
The police think he stole about 468 boxes of flooring, each of which was “worth at least $75.”
According to the report, the man then sold the floors on Facebook.
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Unemployment Fraud
Court records show that the man started putting in fake jobless claims for about 10 people in May 2020.
Authorities say he lied in the claims when he said those people had been fired from his building company.
The release says that he then “cashed out the unemployment benefits, which had been put on debit cards, and gave some money back to the “workers” who had given him their personal information so he could use it in the scheme.”
The Arrest
On March 31, 2022, detectives with the St. Charles County Police Department were looking into thefts of catalytic converters when they found the man inside his Jeep in a storage lot.
Police said they found a stolen Glock 9mm pistol in his car when they nabbed him.
Authorities said that the man could not have a gun because he had been guilty of a crime.
The release says he could get up to 35 years in jail, a fine of up to $750,000, and have to pay back what he stole.
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