An investigation into the fraudulent use of a credit led to 29 counts of credit card fraud and the discovery of more than a thousand email accounts set up to use stolen credit card information. Shawn E. Jones, 43, who has no fixed address, was arrested by the Polk County Sheriff’s Department May 27th. The FBI has been called in to the investigation.

According to Detective Dennis Waters of the Polk County Sheriff’s Department, a complaint was made by Candy Johnson on May 23rd. Johnson said she received a letter from The Company Store and learned that someone purchased $514 worth of merchandise and wanted it shipped to Jones at a residence on Chestuee Road in Calhoun. Upon arrival at the address, sheriff’s deputies could plainly see items that had been shipped via UPS and FedEx through the glass door.

During the investigation, the sheriff’s department made contact with the resident, Donna Steinbach, who was the ex-wife of Jones. According to Waters, Steinbach said Jones had been ordering things online and having them shipped to her address.

Jones arrived at the residence and when advised of his Miranda Rights reportedly confessed to using numerous people’s credit cards to make purchases over the internet. At this time, according to the police report, detectives were able to identify another victim, Anna Ryals. Steinbach gave consent to search the residence and turned over numerous amounts of property that she knew Jones had ordered and shipped to her residence.

Waters said Jones had been staying in a motel in Athens and was moving from motel to motel. Aside from the shipments to his ex-wife’s residence, Jones had allegedly also shipped packages to his daughters. Jones reportedly purchased items including bedding, banjos, guitars, jewelry, clothing and toys. According to Waters, most of Jones’ victims were from out of state and due to the nature of the crimes, the FBI was called in to investigate.