Man Who Stole Dozens of Golf Carts Is Sentenced to 2 Years in Prison

A person who admitted to stealing or attempting to steal 84 golf carts throughout a number of states in an effort to unravel his monetary troubles was sentenced on Tuesday to 2 years in jail, the authorities in North Dakota mentioned.

In response to a sentencing memorandum filed by his lawyer this month, the person, Nathan Rodney Nelson, 46, got here up with the concept to steal and promote golf carts whereas he was struggling to take care of his dwelling inspection enterprise.

From there, the authorities mentioned, Mr. Nelson acted largely at night time, going to golf programs and stealing carts in pairs. In response to an settlement below which he pleaded responsible final December in federal courtroom in North Dakota to at least one depend of interstate transportation of stolen property, he would use “widespread ignition keys to drive the golf carts from the programs onto a trailer.” The settlement didn’t clarify how he had obtained the keys.

Mr. Nelson ran the theft operation for about 4 years, from 2017 to 2021, promoting golf carts he had taken from golf programs in states together with Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, in accordance with the plea settlement and a June 2021 affidavit filed by an F.B.I. agent, who wrote that Mr. Nelson had stolen at the least 70 carts.

Mr. Nelson typically bought the golf carts below an alias, Mason Weber, on Craigslist or on Fb Market, in accordance with courtroom information. He typically crossed state strains to make a sale.

Mr. Nelson normally bought the carts for $2,500, although they had been typically price at the least $5,000, in accordance with the plea settlement. The thefts value his victims a complete of round $222,000.

The F.B.I. had been investigating him since July 2019 after a North Dakota sheriff’s workplace requested for help when it realized the string of thefts is perhaps linked, in accordance with the affidavit.

Mr. Nelson’s scheme unraveled in August 2020 when his telephone quantity gave him away, in accordance with the affidavit.

He had saved eight stolen golf carts at a self-storage facility in Illinois below his alias, in accordance with the affidavit. A sheriff’s workplace there found that the telephone quantity related to the alias was the identical quantity that belonged to Mr. Nelson.

The authorities tied him to a number of interstate golf cart gross sales earlier than he was arrested at a gymnasium in Florida in March 2021, in accordance with the affidavit.

His two-year sentence contains credit score for time he has already spent in jail. A federal decide ordered him on Tuesday to “forfeit” round $222,000 in money.

A spokesman for the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the District of North Dakota didn’t instantly return emails or telephone calls on Tuesday.

After Mr. Nelson’s responsible plea in United States District Courtroom in North Dakota in December, seven different expenses he had confronted — one depend of transportation of a motorcar and 6 counts of sale or possession of stolen motor autos — had been dismissed, in accordance with the sentencing memorandum.

It was unclear why Mr. Nelson trafficked in golf carts, however his lawyer, Lorelle A. Moeckel, wrote within the sentencing memorandum that her consumer “was lured by the concept of fast straightforward money and made a really poor alternative, which he deeply regrets.”

Ms. Moeckel declined to touch upon Tuesday.

As soon as he got here up with the golf cart scheme, Ms. Moeckel wrote within the memorandum, “it grew to become simpler and simpler for him to stray from his lengthy held ethical compass.”