Small Town Misfit

Charlotte, NC
A teller at a Bank of America branch said a customer came through the drive-thru and asked for change for a $100 bill. When she gave the customer change, he held up a $50 bill and a $5 bill indicating to her that she didn’t give him the correct amount. She then sent out another $50 bill in exchange for the $5 bill. At the end of the day, her drawer was short $45 and she was mad as hell that she was tricked by the man.

Found in Creative Loafing

Goleta Valley, CA
Carefully disguising rolls of nickels as rolls of quarters, a con artist entered a Fairview Avenue bank, exchanging the fraudulent rolls for $400 in cash. A bank employee made the discovery after the exchange took place and the thief was no longer in the area.

According to the report, the suspect disguised the rolls of nickels by placing two quarters at the end of each roll and binding the nickels with athlete’s tape. The nickel deposit totaled $81.71 rather than $400.

Found in the Goleta Valley Voice

Charlotte, NC
A 34-year-old woman said she was swindled out of $2,500 at an Exxon gas station. A person she didn’t know approached her trying to sell her name brand perfume at a discounted price. The woman decided she could buy a bunch of the perfume and sell it at a higher price later. She gave the person the money, but the person never returned with the perfume.

Found in Creative Loafing

Atlanta, GA
A 31-year-old man said for the last two years, an unknown person has falsely claimed his two kids on his or her income tax return. According to the police report, one child’s middle name is “Believe” and the other child’s middle name is “Peace.”

Found in Creative Loafing

Waynesboro, GA
In unrelated incidents, two local women learned that someone else had already used their social security numbers to file taxes.

In one case, a woman with the same name in a neighboring town had reportedly been using the wrong number every year since 2004.

The third resident called police last week when she tried to file her taxes and learned someone had already claimed both her and her son as dependents.

The victim told police both social security cards were stolen from her purse earlier this year.

Found in the True Citizen

Jeffco, CO
A Jeffco Sheriff’s deputy responded to a report of a counterfeit bill at a Wal-Mart at 3600 S. Youngsfield St. on Jan. 5. The deputy spoke to a woman who said she had been saving $1 bills since the beginning of the year, and she recently noticed one that did not look real. The deputy agreed the bill was a fake and it was sent to a local U.S. Secret Service agent for further investigation.

Found in the Jeffco Shriff’s Blotter

Chattanooga, TN
Caroline Von Cannon of Kingsley Court said she began corresponding with a man named Michael Tom on the Internet in early January.

She said he asked if he could send her flowers, and a potted plant soon arrived.

She said she then began to receive boxes containing men’s clothing, rings, shoes, Motorola phones and Apple IPhones. She was asked to forward the items to an address in Ghana.

Ms. Von Cannon turned them over to city police instead.

Found in the Chattanoogan

Rio Grande, NM
A Century Bank caller said someone was trying to deposit bad checks; a man accompanying the person accused of fraud fled on foot and hid in a weed patch. Police noted in dispatch logs that “we know who the subject is that is hiding and he really isn’t involved, so he can get full of stickers.” The other subject was taken into custody.

Found in the Rio Grande Sun

Northglenn, CO
A 46-year-old Northglenn woman called police at around 9:30 a.m. Jan. 3 to report that a man she had been dating said he was an FBI agent, according to police reports. The man, while allegedly intoxicated, showed FBI identification to a man who had supposedly stolen a cellphone that night while at a bar. Reports indicate the man told the alleged thief that he was a federal agent and it was a felony to steal a cellphone. The man’s neighbors told the police that they’d known him for the past 25 years. When the police asked what kind of work the male was in, the neighbors said, “I don’t know if I can tell you,” and indicated they had been asked to keep quiet. Police contacted the man at a home improvement store in Northglenn and he said he used to pose as an FBI agent to gain the interest of women but hadn’t done it for a while. The male subject filled out a voluntary witness statement. The case has been forwarded to the sheriff’s office and the FBI.

Found in the Northglenn Police Blotter

Oakley, OH
Two men were arrested and charged Thursday night after Cincinnati police say they posed as Norwood police to get into a man’s home and steal $120 from him.

Josh Harber, 25, of East Walnut Hills, and Kenneth Bush, 20, of Norwood, are scheduled to appear in court at 9 a.m. on charges of robbery and inpersonating a police officer, Hamilton County court records show.

The men flashed a badge at the door of a home in the 3000 block of Robertson Avenue just before midnight Thursday, police said. They said they were Norwood police officers and needed to speak to the victim about a suspect they were looking for, according to court records.
But once they were inside, they patted the victim down and took $120 off him, records state.

Found in the Cincinnati Enquirer

Thanks Luann!

Columbia, SC
Don’t be so gullible that you get swindled out of $15,000, twice. A 77-year-old man said that on Nov. 9 a woman and a 40-year-old man dressed as police officers came to his Torwood Road home and referenced a past incident involving the man getting swindled out of $15,000. Although the man hadn’t reported being scammed to the police because he was afraid of being ridiculed, the two “cops” told him they had made an arrest and needed money from him to match the money they found on the suspects. So with their heads in the clouds, the man and his wife drove with the female “officer” to a bank on Huger Street and he took out $15,000 while the female “cop” waited in the car. The flimflam pair told the man they would call him within the hour to identify the suspects and they would give him back the money from both incidents. But they never did call, so now the man is out $30,000 and facing ridicule for being gullible, again.

Found in the Free Times

Columbia, SC
Two men were engaged in a conversation about church and religion on the late afternoon of Oct. 6 when one of them asserted that the church was all about the “Benjamins” (money) and that he was hurt by the church because of this greedy little fact. He then asked the other man to prove that he was not about money and give him his ATM card and PIN. The victim complied (perhaps believing this to be a test of God). The man told the victim that he would not use the card, but return the next day (Sunday) and attend church with him. Psyche! The victim reported that $400 was withdrawn from his account at a Bi-Lo at 3900 North Main St. (right next door) at about 6 p.m. Lesson learned: God will never test you by asking you for your ATM card.

Found in the Free Times