Get rich schemes come in all shapes in sizes, but leave it to the always creative “Florida Man” to come up with perhaps the worst money-making scheme in the history of mankind. Mark Charles Barnett is currently in custody and facing up to ten years in prison after planning to blow up several Target retail stores along the East Coast in an attempt to get the company’s stock to dip, allowing him an opportunity to grab shares at a reduced cost. Needless to say, things didn’t exactly work out as Barnett planned.
Barnett built explosive devices into random food boxes, which he intended to be placed at Target stores between Florida and New York. When the bombs detonated, Barnett assumed that the resulting news would cause Target’s stock to take a dive, at which point he would load up on the stock and make a hefty pile of profit when the stock eventually recovered.
Barnett didn’t want to do the dirty work himself, and instead decided to hire a man to plant the bombs for him. Barnett gave the man ten bombs, some gloves and a mask, along with a license plate cover to aid his getaway. For his services, he was paid the sum of $10,000.
Unfortunately for Barnett, things didn’t exactly work out the way that he had planned. Rather than taking the cash and planting the explosives, the would-be bomber brought all the evidence to local authorities who brought in federal agents to close the case and lock Barnett up. Barnett is currently in custody and awaiting trial.
