Churches Hit By Apparent Con Artists
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
The term con artist seems a bit counterintuitive.
I mean, I suppose there is an "art" to fleecing someone out of something valuable.
I like to think of "art"Êin more positive terms. So for purpose of this column, I'll just use the term vermin to describe the people that are preying on the good will of local churchgoers.
Seems the vermin - there are two women running the scam - show up at small country churches in the southern part of the county and tell a sad story.
The story goes like this:
The woman says she came from Colorado to be with a sister who lives in our county.
She came to be with the sister because the sister just had a stillborn baby and she needed to console her.
But no sooner than she arrived in Warsaw, she gets word from Colorado that her father died of cancer and she had to get back to Colorado right away. But there wasn't enough money for gas and food.
Church members note that the woman cries and becomes very emotional, asking meekly if there is any way they could find it in their hearts to help her.
The vermin also had a husband and a couple of children in Colorado who she misses very much.
Of course, admonished by Jesus to be charitable and to help the downtrodden, what self-respecting Christian can say no? You're in a church, for cryin' out loud.
So the church members - many of whom are elderly and really don't have a great deal of unencumbered disposable income to begin with - cough up the cash.
A church member told me her small congregation of fewer than 30 members mustered up $200.
Apparently a member offered to write a check, but no, that wouldn't do because, well, they had to leave right away and simply didn't have time to get a check cashed.
I am sure the members of that small congregation left there feeling pretty good about having helped someone in need.
That is, until they started comparing notes with members from a nearby church who told a very similar story.
Except in this church, the other vermin did the talking, identifying herself as the woman from Colorado.
And her father didn't die. He was just very ill. And it was she who just had a stillborn infant, not her sister.
They only made about 60 bucks at this church, so the woman called the church's treasurer later on to see if she could increase their haul.
It didn't work.
Then the telephone network among southern Kosciusko County churchgoers really started to buzz.
Come to find out at another church, they didn't get any help because the members had just put in a new furnace and times were a little tight.
One pastor gave them $20 out of his wallet.
At yet another church, the members offered them gasoline and food, but the vermin respectfully declined that offer, because, after all, they needed food and gasoline to get back to Colorado.
A week later, one of them showed up at a church and told the same story - that her father had died the night before.
That poor man! Dying twice in one week.
They drive a red car.
Please forgive me the dripping sarcasm, but this is really pretty low.
Taking advantage of the goodwill of people in small country churches?
Come on. These people are so low they have to crawl up to go down.
The purpose of this column, of course, is to let people know about this so if they show up this Sunday you can send them on their way.
It's difficult to prosecute people like these because the victims are giving them the money willingly.
A member of one of the churches told me she had no trouble believing the woman was down and out.
The member said the woman cried and carried on and looked really desperate. Very convincing.
Since the incident, this member's church has instituted a new policy. They will help people only if somebody in the congregation knows the person or is familiar with the situation.
I guess churches need to be a little more careful when they decide to help people.
And I think that's really sad.
How bad is it when you have to be skeptical about being charitable?
Just when you're feeling good about yourself, you're made to feel like a fool for being scammed.
The vermin may have lined their pockets to the tune of a few hundred bucks, and there may be little that an earthly judge can do about it.
But as any good church-goer will tell you, the important judge is the one you face a little farther down the road. [[In-content Ad]]
The term con artist seems a bit counterintuitive.
I mean, I suppose there is an "art" to fleecing someone out of something valuable.
I like to think of "art"Êin more positive terms. So for purpose of this column, I'll just use the term vermin to describe the people that are preying on the good will of local churchgoers.
Seems the vermin - there are two women running the scam - show up at small country churches in the southern part of the county and tell a sad story.
The story goes like this:
The woman says she came from Colorado to be with a sister who lives in our county.
She came to be with the sister because the sister just had a stillborn baby and she needed to console her.
But no sooner than she arrived in Warsaw, she gets word from Colorado that her father died of cancer and she had to get back to Colorado right away. But there wasn't enough money for gas and food.
Church members note that the woman cries and becomes very emotional, asking meekly if there is any way they could find it in their hearts to help her.
The vermin also had a husband and a couple of children in Colorado who she misses very much.
Of course, admonished by Jesus to be charitable and to help the downtrodden, what self-respecting Christian can say no? You're in a church, for cryin' out loud.
So the church members - many of whom are elderly and really don't have a great deal of unencumbered disposable income to begin with - cough up the cash.
A church member told me her small congregation of fewer than 30 members mustered up $200.
Apparently a member offered to write a check, but no, that wouldn't do because, well, they had to leave right away and simply didn't have time to get a check cashed.
I am sure the members of that small congregation left there feeling pretty good about having helped someone in need.
That is, until they started comparing notes with members from a nearby church who told a very similar story.
Except in this church, the other vermin did the talking, identifying herself as the woman from Colorado.
And her father didn't die. He was just very ill. And it was she who just had a stillborn infant, not her sister.
They only made about 60 bucks at this church, so the woman called the church's treasurer later on to see if she could increase their haul.
It didn't work.
Then the telephone network among southern Kosciusko County churchgoers really started to buzz.
Come to find out at another church, they didn't get any help because the members had just put in a new furnace and times were a little tight.
One pastor gave them $20 out of his wallet.
At yet another church, the members offered them gasoline and food, but the vermin respectfully declined that offer, because, after all, they needed food and gasoline to get back to Colorado.
A week later, one of them showed up at a church and told the same story - that her father had died the night before.
That poor man! Dying twice in one week.
They drive a red car.
Please forgive me the dripping sarcasm, but this is really pretty low.
Taking advantage of the goodwill of people in small country churches?
Come on. These people are so low they have to crawl up to go down.
The purpose of this column, of course, is to let people know about this so if they show up this Sunday you can send them on their way.
It's difficult to prosecute people like these because the victims are giving them the money willingly.
A member of one of the churches told me she had no trouble believing the woman was down and out.
The member said the woman cried and carried on and looked really desperate. Very convincing.
Since the incident, this member's church has instituted a new policy. They will help people only if somebody in the congregation knows the person or is familiar with the situation.
I guess churches need to be a little more careful when they decide to help people.
And I think that's really sad.
How bad is it when you have to be skeptical about being charitable?
Just when you're feeling good about yourself, you're made to feel like a fool for being scammed.
The vermin may have lined their pockets to the tune of a few hundred bucks, and there may be little that an earthly judge can do about it.
But as any good church-goer will tell you, the important judge is the one you face a little farther down the road. [[In-content Ad]]