A homeless man was arrested after using multiple stolen identities to buy Apple devices from Xfinity.
An officer responded to Xfinity, located in the shopping plaza near Starbucks at U.S. Hwy. 27/441 and Rolling Acres Road, regarding 41-year-old Jo-Don Philip trying to open an account with false information around 2 p.m. Wednesday, according to an arrest report from the Lady Lake Police Department.
Upon arrival, the officer met with store management who stated Philip came into their store on July 2 and showed them a Maryland driver’s license with the name “Nathan Minnick.” He claimed to be moving from Maryland and had Xfinity for home internet. He was looking to get mobile service, the report said.
Philip also wanted to get three iPhones and four iPads. He did not care about the color of the devices but wanted the newest models and the highest storage capacity available, which alarmed the employee he was talking to. They continued the sale per company policy and began identification verification, the report said.
As the process began, it failed twice with the license number given by Philip. They were able to dismiss the sale at this point to the verification failure. Philip left and came back about two hours later and gave another sales agent the same story. The identification verification failed again, and Philip left, the report said.
The Leesburg Xfinity store issued a “Be on the Lookout” alert for Philip after this incident. He had come into the store before with an Ohio driver’s license, identifying himself as “Scott Mental.” He was able to get $6,789.92 in Apple products. The Ohio ID card was flagged after the sale for identity theft, the report said.
On Wednesday, Philip went into the Lady Lake Xfinity giving the same story of moving from Arizona and needing to establish mobile service. He gave a driver’s license to “Zachary Hugo” and asked about the newest iPhones and iPads. He wanted the same number of devices, did not care about the color and asked for the highest storage capacity, the report said.
The driver’s license was put through the verification process and failed. The manager realized at this point that he was the same person from previous incidents. They stalled him and notified law enforcement, the report said.
The officer approached Philip who was trying to start service with three phones and four tablets. He was cooperative and agreed to leave the business to talk. The officer told him the allegations brought against him and asked if he would give his identification, the report said.
Philip willingly handed over the Arizona license, and a check of it rendered no records. He was asked for his Social Security number, and it came back to “Zachary Hugo.” He was adamant that was his name, so the officer fingerprinted him for his true name. This determined he was giving a false ID, the report said.
The officer asked Philip if he wanted to give his correct identity, at which time he laughed and did not answer any questions. He was handcuffed and searched, yielding a wallet in his pocket. Inside was a Chase business checking account with the name Scott Mental AJ Aspenson Constriction and several other prepaid cards with his name on them. There was also a set of keys to a rental Hyundai passenger car, the report said.
The car was inventoried before being towed. The officer found a Florida license with Philip’s information, an Ohio license with “Scott Mental” on it, phones, identity documents and several commercial loan documents with Scott Mental’s information, the report said.
Contact was made with Scott Mental who lives in Ohio. He stated his identity was stolen, and he had been getting letters and credit reports regarding several bank accounts, construction companies and cellular sales. He did not know Philip and gave no one permission to use his identity, the report said.
Dispatch then advised that Philip had an active writ of bodily attachment for failure to pay child support in Osceola County. He stated he did not have an address and lived out of a storage unit in Orlando. He also made comments about being tied to the U.S. Virgin Islands, making him a possible flight risk, the report said.
Philip was arrested and charged with two counts of fraudulent use of personal identification information, two counts of unauthorized possession of driver’s license, dealing in credit cards of another and false ID to law enforcement officer. The Virginia native was transported to Lake County Jail with bond set at $13,500.