Yo! IRS Got Privilege: You Can do it, we can Help!

Allegedly Robert P. Dooley has defrauded Home Depot of enough money to build his own house. Approximately $330k of merchandise was swiped by the former IRS official. The Boston Globe reports that the former Salem resident would walk into a Home Depot store, fill his cart with “floor tiles, casement windows, sliding doors, or other items” and bypass the checkout line. He'd head straight to the returns line (always a painfully long line in Bostonist's opinion) to get a refund credited. Armed with an IRS badge as a symbol of his trustworthiness he would receive credit for his “purchases.”

The three year run between 2002 and 2005 came to an end. Dooley was charged with 12 counts of wire fraud for the thefts. He had allegedly tried to rip off a Home Depot in Reading when he was caught. According to the Globe, Dooley spent about eighteen months at the IRS between February 2001 and September 2002, but kept his IRS identification badge in his pocket to prove his trustworthiness while ripping off the stores.

The scam is a simple plan that seems to be at the base of a grifter economy, return things you didn't buy for a credit. You'll get face value for the items you have, even if you didn't pay for them. For Dooley, if what the prosecutors are accusing him of walking away with, the idea wasn't executed with the precision and precaution that would have allowed him to escape the scrutiny of the Home Depot – or local authorities.

Image from Flickr user Wesley Fryer