EXCLUSIVE Unexpected dad Max Schenzel arrested for allegedly stealing 77-yr-old woman’s credit cards

TLC’s popular teen pregnancy reality series Unexpected returns for a second season on August 5 with two returning moms and three new moms and dads to be. One of the new moms will be in for an extra bumpy road, however, as the father of her child was recently arrested and charged with burglary after allegedly stealing credit cards and money from his friend’s 77-year-old grandmother!

The couple is 16-year-old Chloe and her boyfriend, 18-year-old Max Schenzel, from just outside Phoenix, Arizona. Here is an intro clip for Chloe and Max recently posted by TLC:

In the clip, Chloe’s parents express their concerns over Max being able to step up as a dad and a husband. “To support a child, what steps are you making?” Chloe’s dad Nate asks Max. “You’ve got a baby coming in a matter of months,” he points out.

Max is unfazed. “Basically, I’m making good money right now, so I’m not stressed out,” he replies. “It’s pretty simple.”

It seems that things might have gotten a little more complicated for Max back in June because he was arrested on the 22nd and charged with burglary and credit card theft.

Here is Max’s mug shot photo from the arrest:

We obtained the court records and can exclusively reveal details about the accusations against Max — all of which are supported by some very strong evidence.

According to police, the incident happened between 2AM and 6AM on the morning of June 8. A friend of Max’s tells police that he was awakened at roughly 2AM by Max opening his bedroom window. The friends says that Max “asked for a bottle of water and asked to hang out.” The friend was not up for a hangout sesh and instructed Max to leave because he was sleeping. Max complied and left.

Max’s friend lives with his 77-year-old grandmother, and the next morning she discovered that “two credit cards, 545 cash, and a 95 casino voucher” were missing from her purse.

One of the stolen credit cards was used twice between 6:30AM and 7:30 AM on the same morning. One purchase was for $12.33 at McDonald’s, and the other was for a $320.26 mini refrigerator at Fry’s Electronics. Both the McDonald’s and Frye’s locations were within a half mile of the grandmother’s house.

From court documents:

The next day, after discovering the burglary had occurred while they were asleep, the grandson stated the defendant’s social media account included a photo of a mini refrigerator, which is one of the items fraudulently purchased with the credit card.

Police obtained surveillance video from both McDonald’s and Fry’s and they revealed the same young male making the purchases at both locations. The grandson later identified Max as the person in the surveillance videos. The grandson points out Max’s chest tattoo that can be seen in the videos, and the probable cause statement concurs: “The defendant has a tattoo on his upper right chest that is the same shape and location of the tattoo seen on the suspect in surveillance video.”

According to the complaint, Max found out that he was being investigated for the crime and he returned to his friend’s house to confront him. After initially denying the allegations, Max eventually admitted to his friend’s grandmother that he did it. He asked her not to press charges and offered to pay back the charges made on the credit card. The grandmother did not accept his offer. Max later texted his friend “apologizing and saying he manned up to the victim.”

On June 22, Max took a $320 money order to the grandmother and offered it to her as repayment. She refused again. The same day Max was arrested and charged with theft of a credit card (a class 5 felony) and burglary in the second degree (a class 3 felony). The total value of the stolen items plus the fraudulent credit card charges is $972.59.

After being arrested, Max admitted that he did visit his friend for a bottle of water, but he denied unlawfully entering the victim’s residence and also denied using her credit card. Max says he went straight home and went to bed after getting the bottle of water. He then claimed that the water bottle incident was a different date than the burglary, adding that the friend he visited is an alcoholic.

And what about the claims that he attempted to repay the grandmother with a money order? “The defendant also admitted to offering a money order to the victim for about $300, saying it’s because they think he committed the crime.”

Max is currently out of custody with a pre-trial hearing scheduled for August 8.

Making things potentially worse for Max is the fact that he is no stranger to the criminal justice system. In late September of last year he was charged with trespassing and being under 21 with alcohol in his system. The alcohol charge was later dropped, but according to court records, Max pleaded guilty to the trespassing charge, a third-degree misdemeanor, on May 17.

After May 17, the trespassing case has a number of minutes entries referencing “failure to pay” and “probation assessment,” so the future does not look bright for Max.

I assume that Unexpected viewers will be able to see all of this unfold this season — at least the impact of it on Chloe and her family — so be sure to tune in for the Season 2 premiere on Sunday, August 5 at 10/9c on TLC. (That’s right after the Season 2 premiere of Before the 90 Days y’all!)

Asa Hawks is a writer and editor for Starcasm. You can contact Asa via Twitter, Facebook, or email at starcasmtips(at)yahoo.com