An El Paso County Sheriff’s Office dispatch to the 12800 block of Bales Drive this past Wednesday led to the arrest of Johnny Justin Flores, a 29-year-old accused of deceptive business practices and theft. In a Facebook post by Sheriff Oscar Ugarte, a dispute over services rendered to a semi-truck was reported, deepening the conversation around the reliability and integrity of online business transactions.
A commercial truck driver, having found Flores’s services online, alleged to deputies that after experiencing mechanical troubles, he hired Flores at a cost of about $1,200. The issue escalated when, after paying the invoice by the 5:30 p.m. deadline, Flores refused to release the truck and demanded nearly triple the initially agreed-upon price. This maneuver, detailed in Ugarte’s post, echoes the larger issue of predatory practices that target those in immediate need, the truck driver’s vulnerability exposed in his trust of an online service—a vulnerability Flores allegedly sought to exploit.
Responding detectives secured a search warrant and were able to recover the semi-truck. Flores was met with two arrest warrants and subsequent charges: Deceptive Business Practices and Theft of Property <$150,000. According to the El Paso Sheriff’s Facebook post, the bonds were $5,000 and $10,000, respectively…