Prisoner serving 25 years for an armed robbery that his mother masterminded is ‘caught running elaborate fraud scheme to steal $1million of goods from Lowe’s to build himself a house – all while he was behind bars’
- Jared Murray, 37, is an inmate at South Bay Correctional Facility in Florida
- He is serving a 25-year sentence for his role in a 2011 armed robbery that his mother masterminded
- For the last year, he has been building a home in Lake Placid using goods that were stolen from Lowe’s
- He impersonated contractors with open lines of credit there to order goods
- He then either sold the materials or used them to build his own by paying contractors to do it
- He had the help of a handful of ‘love interests’ and a woman he calls his aunt
- The FBI has issued a complaint against him but he is yet to be charged
- The house is listed as for sale for $185,000; it is yet to be seized by the government
Jared Murray, 37, is an inmate at South Bay Correctional Facility in Florida
A criminal serving 25 years behind bars for an armed robbery that his mother masterminded has accused of running a fraud scheme which allowed him to build his dream home using $1million worth of stolen materials from Lowe’s – all while he was in prison.
Jared Murray, 37, is an inmate at South Bay Correctional Facility in Florida.
He is serving a 25-year sentence for his role in a 2011 armed robbery that his mother masterminded.
For the last year, he has been building a home in Lake Placid using goods that were stolen from Lowe’s.
He pulled it off by using a contraband cellphone to place orders with Lowe’s under the names of contractors who had open lines of credit with the home improvements store.
Murray would steal their identities and order materials to be sent to the property. Contractors there then constructed the house, without ever meeting him.
According to an FBI affidavit about the case that was obtained by The Daily Beast, Murray or one of his associates would impersonate the contractors to place large orders with Lowe’s.
He then would sell some of the materials online, on apps like OfferUp, and keep the money to pay contractors working on his property.
The property that Murray built is now being sold for $185,000; the government has not yet seized it
Photos from the property listing show the unfinished interior of the property
He used multiple cell phones to do the ordering, agents said, and was assisted by both a woman described as his ‘one of his love interests’, and a woman described as his ‘aunt’.
Authorities were alerted to the scheme in November 2019 when a Lowe’s employee reported a possible fraud.
Murray had impersonated someone called Wayne Jones and charged more than $4,000 to an account operated by Duane McQuillen Construction.
He purchased roofing shingles and scheduled them to be sent to the Lake Placid lot where he was building the property.
Five days later, he bought another $5,000 worth of roofing shingles, this time under the name Bobby T Inc.
Some of the roof shingles were sold on the app for half their market value.
Murray, it is alleged, operated the OfferUp account under the name myersroofing95@gmail.com and called himself Mike Myers.
Murray ran the scheme from South Bay Correctional Facility in Florida (pictured)
His co-conspirators had saved his phone number under ‘Bae’, according to the affidavit, and their photos included images of him in prison uniform, leaning against a wall.
The women deposited money in his Cash App account, sometimes more than $1,000, after selling the stolen Lowe’s goods.
The money was then used to pay the contractors who were building Murray’s home.
He paid another inmate in the prison $200-a-month to hold his phone and so that he could use his cell to conduct ‘business’ when he wanted to, the affidavit claimed.
That inmate told police that Murray boasted that he’d made more than $1million from the scheme.
He kept some of the money in a safety deposit box which, according to the inmate, one of his lawyers had access to.
Murray bought the lot where he is building his property in July 2019 for $4,500.
The house is now being listed for sale at $185,000 but is in the process of being seized by the government.
It’s unclear what will now happen to Murray or any of the others involved.
The investigation is ongoing and he has not yet been charged.