88 Year Old Heroine Scam Victim

Last year Jeanette Stewart, 88, made news when she chased a jerk who had ripped off her husband’s wallet at a McDonald’s Restaurant. This year she is the victim of a $5,000.00 scam.

Three men apparently specializing in ripping off the elderly, came to her door in Portland, OR in mid afternoon, claimed to have trimmed the tree in her yard a couple of years ago for her recently deceased husband, and asked about the old yellow Monte Carlo, 80’s era, she owned.

These nice men kindly offered to repair her old car, and then purchase it from her. She jumped at the chance to rid herself of that old eye sore.

The men’s only problem with repairing the car was a lack of funds, so they persuaded Jeanette to go with them to her bank where she could withdraw $5,000.00 to help the men repair her car. (Don’t we just adore these kind gentlemen who want so much to help us over55ers!)

One of the men helped her back into their van after she obtained the fifty, one hundred dollar bills they requested, then took them from her so she wouldn’t need to carry such a burden. When they returned Mrs. Stewart to her home, they cautioned her not to tell anyone about how they were helping her.

Mrs. Stewart put her thinking cap on and then realized she had done something awfully wrong. She and a friend called 911 later on that day.

Police questioned her about detailed descriptions of the men and their van, but all she could recall was that it was a late model, full-sized black van with gray upholstery. She couldn’t supply enough data to give clues for the police to pursue – they are stumped at this point.

Portland police Sgt. Margaret Bahnson of the Police Bureau’s Family Services Division said scams like this aren’t uncommon, and she suspects the men have just moved on to other victims.

The Sgt. complimented Mrs. Stewart for reporting this to the police, saying so many scams of elderly go unreported because they are to embarrassed to tell anyone how they were taken.

Portland Family Services now have two officers and two detectives assigned to investigating crimes involving abuse and exploitation of over55ers.

Mrs. Stewart and husband Douglas were robbed at their local McDonald's in November, 2007, by a 15 year old kid who was later arrested. When the boy grabbed her husband’s wallet and ran – she took off after him immediately, yelling and trying to catch him. Douglas Stewart died in March of this year of a heart attack at age 90.

Sgt. Bahnson said these scams are very common. “It’s very familiar, where people, especially the elderly, get intimidated into giving their money up.”

It seems that even feisty little heroines like Jeanette can be intimidated by three very nice men who appear to be so kind and helpful! Hopefully they can be properly rewarded in their next life with fire and brimstone.