MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies say they’ve flushed out a suspect involved in a sizeable scheme to sell stolen smart toilets on social media, arresting him on Wednesday.
The case, according to an MDSO arrest report, was an apparent inside job targeting SW Corp, a company based just outside of Hialeah at 5701 NW 35th Ave., and its ANZZI brand of high-tech toilets.
The line includes toilets featuring built-in bidets, heated seats and remote-controlled operation.
According to investigators, in late September, an SW Corp employee caught wind of its thrones being sold on Facebook Marketplace “at prices and in quantities inconsistent with legitimate retail distribution.”
The employee posed as an interested buyer and gathered information from a woman who answered her inquiry, including a date that a pallet of toilets had been delivered. Deputies said that led the employee to conduct an inventory audit that revealed that more than 400 smart toilets had vanished.
Deputies said another employee would later single out Paul Joe Gomez.
They said Gomez, 37, of southwest Miami-Dade, “had, on numerous occasions, requested preparation of special orders of toilets requiring immediate pickup” and when loaders or shipping personnel asked for paperwork, “repeatedly stated the shipments were handled by him and that no paperwork was required.”
This was not standard practice, authorities said.
According to the report, surveillance video showed Gomez worked with a specific driver each time and engaged in a “repeated pattern of diverting company merchandise from the premises rather than a single isolated occurrence.”
At least $400,000 ended up down the drain because of the thefts, authorities said.
Authorities said they detained Gomez at his home on Wednesday and, after he allowed them to search his vehicle, “detectives located several legal pads on the passenger side containing quantities, dollar amounts and notations including words such as ‘toilets’ and ‘water heaters.’”
“This has to do with my previous employer,” deputies said Gomez told them.
That evidently didn’t pass the smell test. After Gomez provided consent to search his efficiency for toilets, deputies said they took him to MDSO’s South District station for further questioning. Authorities said he invoked his right to remain silent and was then arrested on charges of first-degree grand theft and organized scheme to defraud.
As of Thursday morning, Gomez was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center with a bond listed as “to be set” in online records.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether anyone else would be facing charges.
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