Most wanted Deadbeat DAD in U.S. Caught in Calgary
U.S. dad sought since 1998 for not paying half a million dollars in child support
He owed more than half a million dollars in child support and was considered America’s “most wanted deadbeat.”
And after nearly two decades on the run, he was found just west of Calgary, thanks to a tip from a local restaurant owner.
Until earlier this month, Joseph Stroup’s name sat atop the “most wanted deadbeat parents” list in the U.S., owing more than $560,000 in child support, more than double that of the second most wanted name.
Following his divorce, Stroup was ordered by a Michigan court in August 1989 to pay $100 per month in child support for his four children, according to the Office of the Inspector General in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. But this was later reduced to $14 per month after Stroup told a court he was unemployed and medically disabled.
In 1996, the court learned that Stroup was running a successful internet business, which he later sold for more than $2 million, and his child support order was modified to account for the unreported income. But since June of that year, he allegedly failed to pay any further child support, leading to an arrest warrant in July 1998.
“At some point, he decided not to pay anymore and he left the state. The amount that he owed met the threshold when it gets elevated to the federal level,” said Steve Warren, a special agent at the Detroit field office of the Inspector General.
Stroup has been considered a fugitive for nearly 20 years.
“At the time, they did everything they could to locate him,” said Warren. “They weren’t able to.”
But it was a tip from a restaurant owner just west of Calgary that ultimately led to his arrest.
At some point, Stroup moved to Alberta and began identifying by an alias, “Joop Cousteau,” according to Warren.
In late November, Stroup was eating at the Bears Den restaurant just west of Calgary when restaurant owner Scott Winograd began to notice something strange.
“One day he came in and he called a server over after about 10 minutes and said he bit on a maraschino cherry pit, which is odd because maraschino cherries don’t have pits,” said Winograd, whose restaurant closed last month. “He handed this thing that looked like a cherry pit . . . and said he broke some dental work.”
The next day, Stroup returned to the restaurant with a handwritten dental form.
“He had his name on it and his birthday, so I thought, ‘OK, Joop Cousteau, that’s an odd name. I thought I should Google him because all my spidey senses were going off,” said Winograd, who feared the man was trying to scam him. “I was thinking this doesn’t seem right.”
When he Googled the name, Winograd found a Facebook page that had been set up by Stroup’s son, which connected his father’s alias and real name, along with the photo used in his arrest warrant, in an attempt to expose him.
“The picture, I’m like, ‘oh, my god, that’s him 20 years ago,’ ” said Winograd. “So I brought up my surveillance photo from the day before and started comparing back and forth, you know, the shape of his nose and exact same moustache, of course. His height was perfect and his age was about right.”
Almost entirely sure that the man with the supposed dental problem was also America’s most wanted deadbeat, it was the events of the following day that sealed the deal for the restaurant owner.
Stroup once again came into the Bears Den, so Winograd decided to chat him up. Stroup described himself to Winograd as an Oxford University-educated trauma surgeon, turned Google vice-president.
“His stories kept getting more and more embellished,” said Winograd, who not long after called the RCMP and the U.S. Inspector General’s office. Within an hour, the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service and Inspector General’s offices all wanted to speak with him.
Stroup had several businesses that he opened while in Canada, said Warren.
“We don’t know what the ties were to that part of your country or anything like that,” Warren said. “No idea why ... he chose Canada.”
After Warren and the U.S. Marshals Service forwarded their lead to the Canada Border Services Agency, Stroup was arrested.
He was deported to the U.S. on Feb. 15 and made a first appearance in court the following day in Chicago.
He’s expected to be taken back to Michigan to face the charges that were filed against him for allegedly failing to pay child support.