View from the cop: Crime & punishment
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AJC.com > Metro > View from the cop > Archives > 2006 > September > 22
Friday, September 22, 2006
The Don Juan con
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Most of you are familiar with identity theft and Internet theft with someone else’s identification. Some of the more traditional types of deception thefts actually involved con men and women working victims face to face.
Recently our detectives worked a case that was more in the “throw-back� style but proves a point that we should all remember when it comes to any type of situation or, in this case, relationship that appears to be too good to be true.
Con men (we’ll call them con men but will refer to men and women because we are more familiar with the term “con men� than we are “con women.� Con Women sounds more like a cheesy knock-off of “Amazon Women on the Moon� made in 1987 starring Arsenio Hall, Michelle Pheiffer, and Phil Hartman as the baseball announcer. * (see review below) To refer to them as Con-People is just hokey.
So, we get this case and it seems like this guy has been conning women out of their money and specifically running their credit card balances through the roof. He posed as a former Florida State University football player who later played with the Dallas Cowboys and had three Super Bowl Rings. It was conceivable since they won rings in 1993, 1994, and 1996.
He was introduced to this particular victim by others at a popular club. They described him as a “quality guy� meaning they were previously conned into thinking he was a “quality guy.� (Guys love to tell people they personally know professional jocks. I know this because my personal friend Skeet told me. He wasn’t a jock but owned several.)
The victim, who has been introduced to the jock, agrees to socially meet the following week which they did. He tells her that he called the three other women, whom he was currently dating, and told them that he would not be dating them anymore because he met one and wanted only to date her. (Get the Kleenex.)
Now, he’s talking about getting married. He wanted to marry in Italy. Why Italy? It’s romantic. This is called the first hook. Romance is to women is like NASCAR is to Ball Ground.
The victim left town for a while but when she returned, the football player wanted her to refer to him as her boyfriend. He wanted her to have children with him. The kids should be big in order to play football. They would hopefully become future “quality guys.�
The football player later said his car had been broken into and his golf clubs taken. Incidentally, he wanted the victim to sign off on the fact the clubs were taken. The victim said that he ordered new clubs and a bunch of other stuff like his customized FSU golf bag because he played ball there and all. She didn’t pay much attention to it figuring it was his money.
This victim is now starting to get the “Uh-Ohâ€? feeling about the football player because he’s starting doing stuff like moving his stuff to her home saying that he had to get it out of his brother’s house. The victim told him that he wasn’t going to move in but he ended up storing some things in her garage and spare bedrooms.
Fast Forward The victim started smelling a rat. She went to dinner with him and noticed that he was elaborately ordering expensive lobster for her and another person at the table as well as expensive wine and so forth. He even left a generous tip. (Can you see where this is going?)
Now the victim is visited by a friend from Dallas. They check with the Dallas Cowboys and find that the guy never played with the Cowboys. Further checking showed that he never played for Florida State University. (You can check this stuff out. Pro and college athletic teams are probably very cooperative in helping setting such records straight. The U.S. Armed Forces are the same when it comes to men posing as war heroes.)
The victim realized what she suspected which was that the football player was a con man. She told him to get his stuff and get out.
As you may have guessed, she received a credit card statement with over $5,000 in charges she didn’t recognize until she realized that the lobster dinner and a whole bunch of other stuff was actually paid for with her credit card. (Remember the golf stuff?) She found that he had charged a bunch of other things to her as well.
She later checked some of the stuff in boxes that he left at her home. She found interesting documents such as arrest reports and parole info for his credit card problems in Texas as well as records of previous judgments filed against him. Documents showed that he has lived in at least six different states since the late 80’s.
Well, another term for con man is habitual liar. They fancy themselves for their ability to completely fool unsuspecting victims. They would like to think they’re smarter than they are as in the movie “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels� but if they talk long enough, they always trip themselves up.
People like to think that other people are basically honest. They don’t suspect people who con them because they simply don’t see it coming. We all want to know someone who is different and interesting, like me when I was a surfer in Montana.
We put this guy in jail. He has a string of other victims. He was working other victims at the same time. He’s left a lot of women debt-ridden. The really bad part of this is most of the victims will still have bills even though they were the victim. He’s not that smart but he knew how to talk real smooth.
Don’t be conned. Check it out. How many men are blowing smoke every Friday night, in the bars, trying to be someone they aren’t. It’s not hard to fool people. If you have a serious look and don’t get too far out with the story you can fool some of the people some of the time and most of the people some, uh, on Eastern Standard Time, something like that.
Related War Story: I once arrested a child-molester who tried to avoid the warrant-arrest by checking himself into a rehab clinic at the last moment. We were tipped off and managed to arrive at the facility a bit early. That gave us some time to look around and make a plan to intercept and arrest the bad guy. That was my lucky day because some medical person left their doctor’s coat lying around. We intercepted the bad guy just outside the office and led him to the “pre-admission� room otherwise known as a waiting room. We looked like we knew what we were doing so everyone assumed we did. I just didn’t think the name out. My suspect thought that he was being admitted by Doctor Chuck Roast and Doctor Sally Mander.
Have a great weekend folks and remember that it’s good to have a bit of skepticism about those who have tall tales! I’ll be in Ball Ground having dinner with the Pope.
Be safe and for those of you who have been complaining soooooo much about the thefts from cars, Please, just this time, take five minutes and remove those I-Pods, laptops, digital cameras and of all things, checkbooks out of your cars when you park them overnight. It might help.
- Here’s the review of “Amazon Women on the Moon”: This is not a great film by any means, but there are some really hilarious, unforgettable sketches in this movie. There’s the Playboy bunny who goes grocery shopping naked, goes to church naked and everyone else acts like its normal. The Amazon Women on the Moon sketch is a scream. David Alan Grier is fantastic as the man without soul. There’s the Siskel and Ebert-style critique of a man’s life. There’s also Andrew Dice Clay’s finest moment (not like he’s had any others) as he screams from a TV set at someone watching his girlfriend’s porn video. A very silly movie, but with lots of great moments.
