Houston man charged for stealing nearly $500k worth of back up power generators
The Brief
A Houston man is charged with engaging in organized criminal activity for stealing nearly $500,000 worth of backup-power generators.
Harris County Precinct 1 Constables say 46-year-old James Eric Barnes stole from 30 distributors across Texas.
Constable Alan Rosen says Barnes used stolen credit cards to purchase the generators, and sold them on Facebook Marketplace using fake identities.
HOUSTON - On Tuesday afternoon, Harris County Precinct 1 Constable announced that 46-year-old James Eric Barns is being charged with a first-degree felony of engaging in organized criminal activity.
Constable Rosen says this comes after a case that started off small in 2023, but grew after a response to somebody who was scammed out of a generator.
"What James would do is he would go online with stolen credit cards and buy generators. He ended up buying them from 30 companies in and around the Houston area." said Constable Rosen.
The backstory
Precinct 1 Constables say Barnes obtained stolen credit-card numbers to buy the new stationary generators for an average of $7,000 to $10,000 each and then sold them at a discounted rate on Facebook Marketplace.
"He would buy thousands of dollars worth of generators. He would then get Craiglist drivers to come pick the generators up, and then he would take them to another location, stage them there and then start posting them on Facebook marketplace for sale, often thousands of dollars cheaper than the generators would otherwise cost." said Constable Alan Rosen," He only dealt in cash so you could only pay him in cash and this spanned from many many Texas cities Austin, Beaumont, Brookshire, Dallas, San Antonio."
Investigators believe more than 30 companies have lost more than $470,000 since 2023 and that the thieves actually tried to scam more than $900,000.,
"He would pose on the Facebook marketplace with a fake picture and fake name," said Constable Alan Rosen.
When Precinct One deputies closed in on Barnes' operation, they seized 10 new, boxed generators in a storage shed.
The investigation showed the sale of about two generators every week for a year.
Why you should care
"It's terrible because some people rely on this for health reasons and otherwise, so it's better that we get it taken care of now verus during a hurricane or during some other bad weather event," said Constable Rosen. "They are standby generators, and they have the ones that actually plug in with an extension cord so they are the smaller ones the real portable ones that standby generators are the ones permanately attached to a home."
Anyone who may have been among Barnes' sales victims should call Precinct One at 713-755-7628.
Barnes could face up to life in prison if convicted.
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