A Georgia man is accused of buying cell phones fraudulently and sending them to an abandoned house next to his.
Daniel Opoku Acheampong, 31, of Douglasville, is charged with fraudulent scheme, grand larceny, two counts of attempted grand larceny and two counts of conspiracy, by the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department.
Acheampong used stolen identities to create new cell phone accounts and had the phones delivered to an abandoned house next to his, Chief Deputy Al Kisner said.
The department was contacted on June 11 by a Sprint Wireless investigator who told detectives multiple phones were bought fraudulently and scheduled to for delivery to two different addresses in Monongalia County, according to a criminal complaint. Both addresses were unoccupied.
The Sprint investigator said someone was taking the phones from the porch of the homes. Detectives were not able to catch anyone picking the packages up but did recover two phones worth more than $1,000, the complaint said.
Sprint against contacted the sheriff’s department on June 19 and said another phone was being delivered in Monongalia County the next day. Detectives conducted an undercover surveillance operation and caught Acheampong grabbing a package, Kisner said.
Acheampong told the deputies he was picking the phone up for someone else. His car was towed and identified as being in the area of the original houses on June 13, according to the criminal complaint. The owner of Acheampong’s residence was contacted and showed police messages from him describing the addresses the phones were shipped to on June 13.
Acheampong is being held in North Central Regional Jail in lieu of $45,000 bond.
