{"id":299753,"date":"2026-06-08T10:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T10:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/299753\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T10:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T10:13:11","slug":"news-6-investigation-into-mysterious-mail-prompts-fraud-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/299753\/","title":{"rendered":"News 6 investigation into mysterious mail prompts fraud arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 An Emmy award-winning News 6 investigation<\/a> into hundreds of traffic citations and toll bills mysteriously mailed to an Apopka family\u2019s home has prompted the arrest of a convicted sex offender on fraud charges.<\/p>\n

Dane Johnson, 47, is accused of submitting more than 120 fraudulent vehicle title applications to the State of Florida on behalf of vehicle owners who live outside the state.<\/p>\n

Only people who reside or work in Florida can legally title a vehicle in the state.<\/p>\n

Instead of entering the vehicle owners\u2019 home addresses on title applications, a state investigator said Johnson repeatedly wrote down the address of a single-family home near Apopka where Pattie Malone lives.<\/p>\n

Dane Johnson, 47 (Orange County Jail)<\/p>\n

In early 2024, Malone received more than 600 traffic citations, toll violation notices, and other vehicle-related mail that were addressed to people she did not know.<\/p>\n

The envelopes originated from all over the county including Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something illegal going on,\u201d Malone said at the time<\/a>. \u201cWhy am I getting all this mail?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mail has been sent from more than a dozen states to Malone\u2019s home. (Copyright 2024 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

Malone contacted News 6 that year after she said she made several unsuccessful attempts to get the U.S. Postal Service to stop delivering the unwanted letters that jammed her community\u2019s small cluster-style mailbox daily.<\/p>\n

A News 6 investigation<\/a> into Malone\u2019s suspicious mail uncovered evidence of possible fraud.<\/p>\n

News 6 Investigator Mike DeForest identified dozens of different names on the envelopes mailed to the Apopka home. <\/p>\n

Malone\u2019s mailbox was frequently jammed with letters. (Copyright 2024 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

DeForest then tracked down court records and other documents indicating those people may have owned vehicles with Florida license plates that were potentially titled or registered to Malone\u2019s home address.<\/p>\n

As part of its reporting, News 6 submitted questions and the list of names to the state agency that oversees vehicle titling and registration, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.<\/p>\n

The agency immediately assigned the case to the Florida Highway Patrol for investigation, records show.<\/p>\n

\u201cWKMG-TV identified 71 different names in the mail Malone received,\u201d FHP Sgt. Thomas Altieri wrote in an affidavit requesting a warrant for Johnson\u2019s arrest. \u201cI began researching these names in the Driver and Vehicle Information Database (DAVID) and discovered that they all used the same Power of Attorney document during the registering and titling of their vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n

[RELATED: Check out News 6\u2019s previous reporting on the case back in 2024]<\/p>\n

According to FHP, those legal forms gave Johnson authority to title vehicles on the owners\u2019 behalf.<\/p>\n

State records show Johnson owned a company called Fast and Reliable Car Titling Services that was headquartered at a now-shuttered used car dealership in Orlando.<\/p>\n

The FHP investigator said he later identified 172 vehicles belonging to 146 individuals living in 30 different states who each paid Johnson a $25 fee to fraudulently title vehicles in Florida. Most of those vehicles were titled to Malone\u2019s home, records show.<\/p>\n

As part of his investigation, Altieri visited a state-contracted tag and title agency in Orange County where Johnson allegedly processed the title applications and vehicle registrations.<\/p>\n

Johnson just happened to be waiting in the lobby when Altieri arrived, records show.<\/p>\n

Altieri questioned Johnson about why he titled hundreds of vehicles using Malone\u2019s address in Apopka.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to Johnson, he had no idea how or why so many customers had the same address,\u201d Altieri wrote in an affidavit. \u201cJohnson did not feel he had any obligation to verify that the address his customers were providing him with was the correct address.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson reportedly failed to mention that he once lived at that same address in Apopka where Malone currently resides.<\/p>\n

Johnson purchased the Apopka property in 2005, county records confirm, more than a decade before Malone bought it.<\/p>\n

Three years later Johnson was forced to move out when his mortgage company foreclosed on the property, court records show.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was shocked,\u201d Malone said after learning about Johnson\u2019s arrest and his connection to her home. \u201cI was upset. I was angry. I had a lot of mixed emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides Malone\u2019s address, FHP discovered Johnson also allegedly submitted vehicle title applications using the addresses of an Orlando apartment where he once lived and his current home in Ocoee.<\/p>\n

Johnson is also accused of failing to obtain VIN number verification on the out-of-state vehicles he allegedly titled.<\/p>\n

A judge issued a warrant for Johnson\u2019s arrest in March after finding probable cause that he committed 129 counts of motor vehicle title fraud.<\/p>\n

If convicted, Johnson faces a maximum potential sentence of five years in prison for each count.<\/p>\n

Johnson turned himself into law enforcement on May 27 and was released from custody the same day on a $10,000 bond, court records show.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s arrest affidavit does not specify the reasons why out-of-state vehicle owners allegedly paid him to fraudulently title their vehicles in Florida.<\/p>\n

A man wanted for questioning by police about a theft at an Illinois Walmart was among the names printed on traffic citations mailed to Malone\u2019s home, News 6 discovered. <\/p>\n

Multiple red-light citations have been mailed to Malone\u2019s home. (Copyright 2024 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

At least four other people shared names with suspected criminals from Romania who were charged with offenses such as retail theft, forgery and identity theft.<\/p>\n

News 6 has been unable to reach Johnson for comment, and his attorney did not respond to an email offering an opportunity to comment.<\/p>\n

In 2009, shortly after Johnson moved out of the Apopka home that Malone now owns, court records show he was arrested for having sex with a 16-year-old girl who law enforcement said was a prostitute.<\/p>\n

A jury convicted Johnson of sexual activity with a 16-year-old child, and a judge sentenced him to nearly three years in prison.<\/p>\n

Upon his release from custody, Johnson was designated a sexual offender.<\/p>\n

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement did not respond to multiple emails from News 6 inquiring why Johnson\u2019s home address listed on the agency\u2019s sex offender registry website differs from the Ocoee address identified by FHP as Johnson\u2019s current residence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cost me money and it\u2019s cost me a lot of time and frustration,\u201d Malone said of the flurry of unwanted mail that continues to be delivered to her home. \u201cI would just love to understand why. I\u2019d love to have that conversation with (Johnson). \u2018Why me? Why did you pick me? I didn\u2019t do anything to you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 An Emmy award-winning News 6 investigation into hundreds of traffic citations and toll bills…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10514,28,30,618,29,1387,80272,15880,126013],"class_list":["post-299753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-apopka","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-highway-patrol","tag-florida-news","tag-fraud","tag-investigative-reporting","tag-mail","tag-vehicle-title"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}