Don’t forget to wipe your feet!
A Florida man who cheekily adorned his stoop with a “come back with a warrant” doormat was arrested for an alleged “large-scale mortgage fraud scheme” on Tuesday after the local sheriff obliged his request and returned with a search warrant.
Christopher Musick, 57, allegedly posed as a “fake real estate investor” in Volusia County, according to a news release from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.
A sheriff deputy snapped a picture of Musick’s front step at his Daytona Beach home, which had a doormat that read “come back with a warrant”.
“We came back with a warrant,” the sheriff’s office wrote.
“After interviewing Musick, VSO Financial Crimes Unit detectives established probable cause to execute a search warrant at his residence, thereby satisfying the doormat’s request,” the office added.
Musick allegedly forged fraudulent documents and “pose[d] as the owner of multiple business properties” in the county, according to the release.
The accused con artist took out mortgages against the properties and used the cash to purchase even more, which he would rent out. From there, the cycle would repeat as he pocketed the rent money.
He also never paid off the loans, the sheriff’s office said.
Musick, a repeat offender with 10 priors and two outstanding warrants in Maryland, was cuffed and faces charges for organized scheme to defraud, grand theft over $100,000, and forgery.
He is being held on a $225,000 bond, according to Volusia County Corrections’ inmate records.
The Sunshine State is infamous for its menagerie of strange residents and even stranger crimes.
In early November, one man known among locals as “Farmer Pete” was arrested after he allegedly opened fire on a trio of twenty-somethings during a debate over how many eggs a chicken can lay.
In October, one repeat offender was arrested on drug possession charges, but authorities discovered he also had a thermos concealed in his rectum, which had to be surgically removed.
Read the full article here
