Duo bought thousands worth of Spam, Café Bustelo using stolen benefits, Miami-Dade deputies say

DORAL, Fla. — Two South Florida men were using stolen benefits card information to spend thousands of dollars on, among other things, Spam lunch meat and Café Bustelo coffee, authorities said.

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Miami-Dade deputies said Myrthland Ince, 33, and Romario Stewart, 32, are among “several subjects” who “have been identified to be targeting Sam’s Club and Walmart stores across South Florida in order to purchase large amounts of perishable items” using compromised food stamp and NationsBenefits cards.

The two men, listed in an arrest report as living together in Hallandale Beach, each face a dozen felony charges.

According to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, deputies were surveilling the Sam’s Club at 8425 NW 13th Terrace in Doral on Monday alongside Walmart investigators when Ince and Stewart walked in.

Deputies said Stewart “was recognized from previous fraudulent transactions.”

Authorities said the two men proceeded to go on a shopping spree, grabbing $500 worth of Tide detergent, 18 cans of Café Bustelo worth a little less than $370 and a singular can of Members Mark cashews worth about $14.

But that wasn’t all. The real motherlode, according to the MDSO report, was of Spam: Seventy bulk-sized cans of the classic lunch meat, worth nearly $1,800. Their total bill came out to $2,704.59, the report states.

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Authorities said the duo went to the self-checkout machines and paid for the items using stolen information from 10 NationsBenefits accounts.

Deputies said they detained the two after they left the store. Ince, they said, had six debit cards re-encoded with the stolen NationsBenefits information, while Stewart had four.

Both men now face 10 identity theft charges, as well as one count each of grand theft and public assistance fraud.

Records show Ince was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $35,000 bond.

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Stewart, meanwhile, was at TGK with a bond listed as “to be set.”

Both men also have magistrate holds, jail records show.