The $799 Bed That Sent Her to Jail: Florida’s Rent-to-Own Prison Pipeline

The Trap

This scenario is a composite of documented cases from Escambia County, Florida, 2017-2019.

You’re a single mom working two jobs in Pensacola. Your couch is held together with duct tape, and the kids need beds. Rent-A-Center runs a commercial: “No credit needed. Same as cash!”

You walk in, pick out a $799 bedroom set, and sign papers agreeing to $79.99 a month for 18 months. The total cost flashes by in small print: $1,439.82—almost double retail. But you have no savings, no credit, and tired kids sleeping on the floor.

Three months in, your car’s transmission dies. You miss two payments.

A certified letter arrives: return the furniture within five days or face felony theft charges. You can’t afford to ship it back. You still owe $1,200, and you’ve already paid $240.

Six weeks later, you’re pulled over for a broken taillight. The officer runs your license: “Ma’am, there’s a warrant for felony failure to redeliver hired property.”

Handcuffs click.

All for a bedroom set you were still paying for.

This is not an urban legend. It’s happening right now, thousands of times a year, and Florida law makes it possible.

The Numbers Tell the Story

The rent-to-own industry serves 4.8 million American households annually, and most customers earn less than $36,000 a year. Nearly 60% have children at home. Three in five are racial minorities.

In Florida, missing payments on merchandise worth more than $300—a child’s bed, a washing machine—can trigger felony charges carrying up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

The industry is booming: The U.S. rent-to-own market reached $11.95 billion in 2023. Companies like Rent-A-Center (founded 1973) and Aaron’s (1955) dominate, with thousands of storefronts targeting neighborhoods where traditional credit is scarce.

But here’s what the commercials don’t tell you: their business model depends on you failing to complete payments.

Part 1: The Contract That Isn’t What It Seems

Walk into a rent-to-own store, and the pitch is simple: low weekly or monthly payments, no credit check, own it eventually. A $800 refrigerator for just $29.99 a week!

What they don’t emphasize: that adds up to $2,400 over 18 months—three times the retail price. The effective annual percentage rate often exceeds 200%.

The contract you sign says “lease,” but functions as a high-interest installment sale. This distinction isn’t academic—it’s the legal loophole that makes everything else possible.

By calling it a “lease,” companies evade Florida’s consumer protection laws:

• No rate caps: Florida’s Retail Installment Sales Act limits interest to 18% APR. RTO companies bypass this entirely.

• No cure periods: Traditional credit sales must give you time to catch up on missed payments. RTO contracts allow immediate demands for return.

• No equity protection: Paid $800 on a $1,000 balance? Doesn’t matter. Miss one payment and they can demand everything back—and keep your money.

The reality is clear: rent-to-own companies are not leasing—they’re selling on credit. Yet they abuse a statute designed for true rentals like cars or construction equipment, weaponizing it against customers who believed they were buying furniture on an installment plan.

According to FTC surveys, 70% of rent-to-own merchandise is eventually purchased by customers, but 24% of returns stem from financial difficulties. That returned merchandise? It gets cleaned up and re-rented to the next desperate family—sometimes generating 3-4 times its retail value before it wears out.

Legal scholars have a term for this: “illusory ownership”—the promise was often illusory, as companies could repeatedly lease the same item, profiting far beyond its value.

Part 2: When Payments Stop, Handcuffs Appear

Here’s where the system turns criminal—literally.

When you fall behind, rent-to-own companies skip civil court entirely. Instead, they weaponize Florida Statute §812.155: “Failure to Redeliver Leased Property.”

The statute was intended for actual theft—someone who rents a car and never returns it, or steals construction equipment. But RTO companies have twisted it to apply to customers who are still actively trying to make payments on merchandise they believed they were buying.

Here’s how it works:

1. Certified demand letter: The company sends a letter demanding you return the property or pay the full remaining balance within five days.

2. 30-day presumption: If you don’t comply within 30 days, Florida law presumes you intended to commit fraud.

3. Felony charges: If the merchandise was worth more than $300—which includes most furniture sets, appliances, and electronics—you face felony charges.

4. Criminal warrant: The company refers your “case” to the State Attorney’s office. A warrant is issued. You’re arrested during a traffic stop, at work, or at home in front of your children.

A BuzzFeed investigation documented how missed payments lead to felony warrants and arrests during routine traffic stops. One example: Taylor Flaim, arrested for alleged $3,593 “theft” involving a phone he no longer possessed. He ultimately paid restitution to get the charges dismissed—standard practice that lets companies collect money while avoiding civil court entirely.

Part 3: The Impossible Choice

Once arrested, you face a system designed to extract payment, not deliver justice.

Option 1: Pre-Trial Intervention (PTI)

Prosecutors offer a deal: pay full restitution plus fees, complete the program, and the charges disappear. Sounds merciful—until you remember you couldn’t afford the original payments. Now you must come up with the entire balance, plus prosecution fees, plus PTI program costs, all while juggling the same two jobs and broken-down car.

Most people fail PTI. When they do, the felony conviction becomes real.

Option 2: Fight the charges

This requires a lawyer you can’t afford. Public defenders are overwhelmed. And here’s the catch: in criminal court, judges focus on whether you returned the property, not whether the contract was legal or fair. The consumer protections that would apply in civil court—rate caps, cure rights, equity considerations—simply don’t come up.

Option 3: Plead guilty

Take the felony, accept probation, try to move on. Except probation comes with fees you also can’t afford. Miss a payment to your probation officer, and you’re violated. Now you’re facing the prison time you tried to avoid.

In Escambia County alone, defendants received combined sentences totaling 16 years of prison time for §812.155 violations in 2019—not for violence, not for drugs, but for missing payments on furniture and appliances.

Why Is This Legal?

If this sounds insane, you’re not wrong. So why does it persist?

Regulatory Capture

The rent-to-own industry has successfully lobbied to keep state laws favorable. Forty-six states regulate these arrangements as leases rather than credit sales, allowing companies to evade stricter consumer protections. In Florida, repeated attempts to reform §812.155 have stalled in the legislature.

Prosecutorial Discretion

State Attorneys’ offices treat these referrals as legitimate theft cases. Why? Some reasons:

• Easy statistics: High “clearance rates” look good on paper

• Company pressure: RTO companies have attorneys on speed-dial presenting these as open-and-shut theft cases

• Lack of training: Many prosecutors don’t recognize these as civil contract disputes dressed up as criminal cases

The Revolving Door

Follow the money: Rent-A-Center logged 2,779 consumer complaints with the FTC between 2016-2017, many involving abusive collection practices. Aaron’s paid $28.4 million in a 2014 FTC settlement for overcharging customers. A 2020 settlement addressed anti-competitive arrangements between Aaron’s and Rent-A-Center.

Yet the criminal referrals continue. A 2017 investigation by the Texas Tribune found that in one Texas county, rent-to-own disputes accounted for 98% of theft complaints. Across Texas, six companies filed over 400 theft charges in just 3.5 years.

Florida’s system operates the same way—but with a lower felony threshold ($300 vs. Texas’s $2,500), ensnaring even more people.

What the Industry Claims

Rent-to-own companies will tell you they:

• Serve customers with no credit alternatives – True, but they’re not providing a service; they’re exploiting desperation

• Offer flexibility (return anytime, no penalty) – Misleading when returns mean losing all prior payments

• Take on risk of non-payment – Their business model depends on defaults; repossessed items are re-rented multiple times, generating exponential profits

In a 2013 scandal, Aaron’s was caught assisting franchisees with spyware that secretly monitored customers, including capturing webcam images and login credentials. This isn’t an industry concerned about serving vulnerable communities—it’s one extracting maximum profit from them.

The National Consumer Law Center’s report, “Rent-to-Own Racket,” reveals that companies routinely file theft charges after customers have already paid substantial equity into merchandise. The system isn’t broken—it’s working exactly as designed.

The Human Cost: Felony Records for Furniture

A felony conviction for “failure to redeliver hired property” carries consequences that ripple for years:

• Employment: Most employers won’t hire someone with a theft conviction

• Housing: Landlords routinely deny applicants with felony records

• Voting: While Florida restored voting rights to most felons in 2018, barriers remain

• Education: Federal financial aid can be restricted

• Family: Criminal records affect child custody proceedings

You fell behind on a bedroom set because your car broke down. Now you can’t get a job because you have a theft conviction. You can’t find an apartment because of your record. The poverty that made you vulnerable to rent-to-own in the first place becomes permanent.

All while the company re-rents your returned furniture to someone else, extracting another $1,439.82.

Three States Got It Right

This isn’t inevitable. Connecticut, South Carolina, and Virginia have already excluded rent-to-own contracts from their rental theft statutes. In those states, these disputes stay where they belong: in civil court, where consumer protections apply and equity matters.

Their economies didn’t collapse. Rent-to-own companies still operate there. But they can’t use criminal law as a collection agency.

Florida can do the same.

The Path Forward

Legislative Reform

Amendment to Florida Statute §812.155 is essential. The law should explicitly exclude installment sales and rent-to-own contracts from criminal theft provisions. The National Consumer Law Center recommends banning rent-to-own companies from using rental theft laws, requiring proof of criminal intent, and limiting charges to misdemeanors.

Florida legislators introduced reforms in 2025 that eased certain tenant burdens, but rent-to-own practices remain largely untouched. Sustained advocacy is required.

Judicial Oversight

Prosecutors must stop rubber-stamping RTO company referrals as criminal theft. State Attorneys’ offices need training to recognize civil contract disputes and decline charges accordingly. Defense attorneys should raise constitutional challenges to these prosecutions.

Federal Intervention

The FTC has authority to investigate “unfair, deceptive, and abusive” practices. Ongoing FTC scrutiny and class-action lawsuits signal potential for broader enforcement, but federal action has historically been slow.

What You Can Do Right Now

1. Florida residents: Contact your state representativeDemand they co-sponsor legislation to amend §812.155. Find your representative at myfloridahouse.gov.

2. File complaintsIf you’ve experienced RTO abuse, report it to the FTC: reportfraud.ftc.gov

3. Share this storyEspecially with:

• Local journalists covering criminal justice

• Public defenders who see these cases

• Community organizations serving low-income families

4. Support reform organizations

• National Consumer Law Center: nclc.org

• ACLU of Florida: aclufl.org

• Florida Policy Institute: fpi.institute

5. If you’re affected or facing chargesContact Florida Legal Services: 1-866-550-2929 or floridalegal.org. You may have grounds for defense or a civil lawsuit.

The Bottom Line

Next time you see a “No Credit Needed! Same As Cash!” sign, remember: that’s the entrance to a trap that ends with handcuffs.

The rent-to-own to prison pipeline isn’t an accident of bad policy—it’s the intentional design of a profitable system that turns desperate people into criminals.

This can end. Three states have already shown us how.

For deeper reading:

• National Consumer Law Center: “The Rent-to-Own Racket”

• Federal Trade Commission: Survey of Rent-to-Own Customers

• BuzzFeed News investigation on RTO criminal prosecutions

Has this happened to you or someone you know? Share your story in the comments.