Gainesville man on probation arrested for almost $12,800 in fraudulent credit card purchases

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Adrian Garcia, 23, has been charged with two counts of fraud to obtain property under $20,000 and two counts of using a two-way communications device to facilitate a felony after allegedly using a credit card to purchase two loads of flooring and hire moving companies to bring them from Stuart to Gainesville and then disputing the charges.

A representative of a flooring store in Stuart told a Stuart Police Department officer that he received two orders of flooring for a total of $9,863.89 on July 9 and July 11 from a person using the name Michael Watts. The representative gave the officer the phone number used for the purchase, and the number was reportedly associated with Garcia in law enforcement databases. The representative said the customer hired a moving company to transport the flooring to Gainesville.

An Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy called the moving company, and the owner said “Michael Watts” had hired the company to deliver a load of flooring from Stuart to Gainesville for $3,000, paid for with the same credit card that was given to the flooring company. The owner showed the deputy several text messages from “Watts” that slightly changed the delivery location to an address that is abandoned but is reportedly a few doors down from Garcia’s previous address in the 1900 block of SW 69th Drive. The owner said he gave “Watts” a chance to pay him after the credit card charge was disputed, and “Watts” said he would “make it right.”

The deputy was unable to find any video surveillance cameras in the area of the delivery, but a witness reportedly said he had seen a pallet of “items” left at the abandoned address about a month ago and again about two weeks ago. The witness said he did not see who picked the items up.

Garcia is currently on probation in Volusia County for fraudulent use of a credit card, and his probation officer did a home visit and told the deputy she did not see any flooring at his home. The next day, the deputy went to the home to interview Garcia and was told that he was at work but would be home at 4:00. The deputy returned at 4:00, but Garcia was still not there, and the deputy left his number. The following day, the deputy learned from the probation officer that Garcia had asked to go to Tampa for a job.

The day after that, the deputy went to Garcia’s home again, and he was still not there. The deputy went to the home again the next day and was told Garcia had not come home the previous night. The deputy called the probation officer again, and she said she had learned that Garcia was in Miami.

On September 12, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) received a report of two fraudulent flooring purchases from a store in Ocala on July 18 and July 19; several days later, both the charges were disputed. A different moving company was paid to deliver the first load of flooring to the same abandoned address, and a third moving company delivered the second load of flooring to the same location, where they said a Hispanic male picked up the flooring and put it in the back of a U-Haul. Both moving companies told the MCSO deputy that the charges had been disputed. The name, phone number, and email address provided to the moving companies were the same as those used for all of the previous fraudulent purchases.

A search warrant was granted for the email address used for the purchases, and it was linked to a relative of Garcia’s; the email account reportedly included an invoice sent from U-Haul collections to Adrian Garcia. An MCSO deputy contacted U-Haul and learned that they had an open collections account for Adrian Garcia, and they provided a date of birth.

Garcia has been charged in Alachua County with the two fraudulent purchases of flooring and moving services from the Stuart flooring company. Garcia has two felony convictions (non-violent) and one misdemeanor conviction (non-violent) and is currently on probation. Judge Susan Miller-Jones set bail at $120,000.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.