May 25, 2026 | Mark Luis Foster
It’s Memorial Day 2026 and I hope you had a chance to remember loved ones or friends or others who fought and died for freedom in the armed forces. I spent the morning volunteering at my local boxing gym in which I’m a member, as they sponsored their annual Murph Challenge, a physical fitness race that involves running a mile, doing a series of push ups, pull ups and squats, and then running another mile. More on that far below on why it’s named after a US soldier.
However, I wanted to note a disturbing trend that I’m seeing as I scour the web for HOA news. There’s more and more reports of HOA fraud popping up. From Yahoo Finance comes this doozy of a headline:
Texas HOA manager accused of embezzling $53,000 to pay for DoorDash and Amazon is part of a larger trend.
Tammie Smith, the general manager who replaced Sparrow, discovered a binder full of unopened HOA statements behind a desk in their office. Smith found dozens of transactions unrelated to HOA responsibilities, including cellphone bill payments. Sparrow allegedly transferred $42,000 to her personal account via CashApp.
Apparently DoorDash and ordering from Amazon kept the woman busy as she spent money that certainly wasn’t hers. The report goes on to list other similar HOA fraud schemes, some of which we’ve blogged about as well. This one is also a doozy:
In another case, former HOA bookkeeper Alexandra Delacaridad Gonzalez was charged with allegedly taking more than $200,000 from two HOAs by writing personal checks to herself. Gonzalez spent some of the money on shopping, plastic surgery, and vacations.
We’re always telling our members to be cautious of their expenses and budgets and finances. Monitoring constantly is key. And for cryin’ out loud, no debit cards!
Now, back to that Murph Challenge from above:
The “Murph Challenge” is named after U.S. Navy SEAL Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy, who was killed in action in Afghanistan on June 28, 2005, during Operation Red Wings. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor after deliberately exposing himself to heavy enemy gunfire to make an emergency call for help, sacrificing his own life to save his trapped team. He was known for doing the very fitness routine that is now repeated at events across the country.
