Man accused of stealing hot tubs from two businesses

HOUSTON – Wednesday afternoon, another hot tub company contacted KPRC Channel 2 News and is offering a $1,000 reward after they too said they were the target of an identity scam. 

Aqua Living Factory Outlets said on April 30, a man wearing a suit and tie walked into the store wanting to buy a hot tub for his wife’s birthday. 

“Nice guy, well-dressed had on a suit tie drove up in what I believe was a BMW,” explained Richard Moody, national sales trainer.  

He said the man wanted to buy a hot tub for his wife’s birthday and told Moody that he was relocating to Houston. 

“He applied for credit, said he had good credit and wanted to finance, we turn it in to finance on Monday with zero down,” explained Moody. “He had a legitimate Texas driver’s license -- I held it in my hand and had all the normal documents proof of who he was, it was all checked out.” 

So they thought. Once they saw that Olympic Pools & Spas, a company in southwest Houston, had filed a police report about a man who used someone else’s identity to buy a hot tub and have it shipped to a home in Northeast Houston, they realized the same thing happened to them.

The only difference, Aqua Living Factory Outlets finances on its own. 

“We would like to find this guy and recover our property," Moody said "but obviously he's involved in pretty heavy criminal activity so the authorities may be interested in getting to know this guy as well."