Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Rico Martino Michel, a 35-year-old resident of Orlando, has been charged with nine felonies linked to allegations of using stolen credit cards to acquire more than $25,000 worth of iPads, Nintendo Switches, and additional merchandise from Target in Gainesville and other retail outlets.
On June 15, Target’s Loss Prevention Officers (LPOs) alerted the Gainesville Police Department about Michel’s repeated visits to the store. Michel reportedly made unusually large purchases of iPads and Nintendo Switches over two days, which raised suspicion. Each purchase involved only a couple of items per transaction, though Michel would bring numerous items to checkout and consistently used a credit card bearing a female name. LPOs suspected Michel of deliberately keeping the total below a certain limit to avoid triggering fraud alerts.
The credit card owner, a Missouri resident, recounted being scammed by someone posing as her bank official over the phone. She was misled into believing there was fraudulent activity on her card and instructed to mail the card to the bank under the guise of rectifying the issue, with a promise of reimbursement. Trusting the caller, she sent the card and halted account monitoring.
Michel obtained the card, using it from June 11 to charge $26,157.24. Although he made most purchases at Gainesville’s Target, transactions also occurred at several Gainesville stores, including Best Buy, Ross, Burlington, Hibbett Sports, PetSmart, Longhorn Steakhouse, and Walmart, as well as in stores throughout Orlando.
Facial recognition software led to the identification of Michel, who has a warrant out of Atlanta for forgery and credit card fraud. Surveillance video from several stores matched photos of Michel from law enforcement databases.
On June 23, the detective learned that Michel was back at Target, and multiple GPD officers and Clark Butler security guards responded to detain Michel. Michel allegedly resisted being placed in handcuffs and tried to run several times; he also allegedly grabbed an officer’s vest in an attempt to take the officer to the ground.
A search incident to arrest reportedly produced credit cards belonging to three more people, and one of the cards had been used to purchase five iPads on June 23.
Detectives are in the process of contacting other victims, and a second victim was contacted in Portage, Michigan. That victim said he fell for the same scam and mailed his card to an address he thought was his bank. The victim provided a list of transactions on the card that matched transactions made at the Gainesville Target. On June 22, a charge of $1,418.07 was made at a Target in Orlando. Additional purchases were reportedly made at the Gainesville Best Buy and Walmart locations.
Post Miranda, Michel reportedly did not explain why he was using other people’s cards to purchase large amounts of merchandise.
Michel, who reportedly told the detective he lives in Orlando and told Court Services he has been in Alachua County for a year but is described as homeless on the arrest report, has been charged with two counts of engaging in a scheme to defraud, grand theft over $20,000, battery on a law enforcement officer, two counts of fraudulent use of a credit card, two counts of possession of a stolen credit card, grand theft over $750, and resisting an officer without violence. He has five felony convictions (two violent) and four misdemeanor convictions (non-violent) in Florida, along with one prison sentence. He also has an unspecified criminal history between 2014 and 2026 in California, Georgia, Virginia, and Nevada.
The detective noted that Michel is believed to be a flight risk because he does not live in Gainesville but said he has a girlfriend in Gainesville, he has been back and forth between Gainesville and Orlando recently, he tried to evade arrest, and he knows additional charges are coming.
Judge Meshon Rawls set bail at $410,000.
Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.