GPD: 3 arrested in scheme to use homeless in iPhone thefts

Published: Tuesday, June 18, 2013 at 12:23 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, June 18, 2013 at 4:53 p.m.

Three out-of-county residents have been arrested on allegations they are members of a large criminal ring and that they enlisted homeless men in Gainesville to try to fraudulently obtain iPhones from the Walmart Supercenter off Waldo Road.

Jamah Hearn, 24, and Answan Geriman Wright, 35, both of St. Petersburg, and 34-year old Lashawn Morant, of Tallahassee, were each charged with felony fraud and booked into the Alachua County jail.

Investigators with the Gainesville Police Department say they believe the men are part of the “Felony Lane” crime ring in South Florida that travels the state targeting different cities and towns for thefts and other crimes before leaving town.

The three men are alleged to have picked up homeless men from the Bo Diddley Plaza downtown and taken them to the Walmart Supercenter located at 1800 NE 12th Ave., where the homeless men were to be paid $30 to obtain iPhones at a marginal up-front price in exchange for contracts the three planned to cancel the following day.

The three men, who traveled to Gainesville in a rented red Jeep SUV, then planned to sell the iPhones for between $300 and $500 each on the street, GPD spokesman Officer Ben Tobias said in a news release announcing the arrests.

The first person the trio enlisted into their scheme backed out after receiving pricing information for a “family plan” and three phones. He later told authorities he refused to buy the phones because he didn’t want to be responsible for the payments or involved with their operation, police reported.

The men then drove the first man back to the plaza and persuaded another homeless man to accompany them back to the Walmart Supercenter. He was in the process of obtaining pricing information for a family plan when he was intercepted by police detectives, who had been alerted by Walmart after a guard noticed two men dropped off by the same red Jeep inquiring about phones.

After their arrest, the three men were questioned separately, and Wright admitted to trying to get the homeless men to purchase cell phones on their behalf and then have them cancel the plans, police reported. Wright said the intent was to take the phones and sell them on the street to make some money, police said.

Had the plan succeeded, Walmart would have lost approximately $1,000 to $1,500 in revenue, based on an approximate value of $300 to $500 per phone, police said.

All three of the suspects remained jailed Tuesday without bond.


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