MEDLEY, Fla. — Police say a scammer successfully made off with hundreds of pounds of lobster from a Medley business but was busted after trying to come back for more on Monday.
According to the Medley Police Department, it all began on Thursday and targeted Tarpon Bay Corporation, a seafood wholesaler located at 7570 NW 77th Terrace.
Police said a man known as “Aldofo” ― whom Tarpon Bay’s owner had never met ― placed a $4,500 order for 100 pounds of lobster and sent Denis Paredes Matos, 32, of Hialeah, to pick it up at noon the next day after a credit card payment was processed.
One hour later, “Aldofo” placed a 600-pound lobster order valued at around $15,000 but asked to split the order up over several credit cards, police said.
According to an arrest report, several of the cards declined on the spot, but eventually, two of the transactions appeared to go through: one for about $10,900 and another for $4,000.
Paredes Matos again picked up the lobster, police said, but on Sunday, the company’s bank informed Tarpon Bay’s owner that the payments never processed.
But “Aldofo” was not done, authorities said; he placed another 600-pound order on Monday. This time, though, Tarpon Bay’s owner called Medley police, who said they were waiting for Paredes Matos.
The report states that Paredes Matos told officers he “was attempting to pick up an order given to him by an individual he met while driving for Uber,” known to him as Luis Ramon Diaz.
He told police that Diaz would pay him $500 per delivery, it states.
Police arrested Paredes Matos on a charge of organized scheme to defraud and he was taken to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where he was being held on a $2,500 bond as of Tuesday morning. The Cuban national was also subject to an immigration hold, jail records show.
No one under the name “Luis Ramon Diaz” appeared in Miami-Dade jail records as of the publication of this article.
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