I helped catch a criminal scumbag piece of s**t
Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2016 1:28 pm
Three weeks ago I at lunch I drove to my mother in law's to check on her and discuss some pictures she was supposed to be looking for for my daughter's wedding next month.
When I pulled up in her drive way there was a white pickup backed up under her carport. I was immediately suspicious because last year (18 months ago) we had to take control of her bank accounts because she was getting scammed by some unscrupulous laborers who were charging her way too much to do some tree trimming and other odd jobs around the house. They took her for around $3,000 as best be could tell, for about $500 worth of work.
As soon as I turned my car off a guy came out to me and asked me if I could move my car because he needed to get his trailer in. I asked "What's going on?" still suspicious about the activity. The guy was slick. No hesitation, no signs of panic that he had been interrupted mid-crime. He told me they were doing some tree trimming on the back neighbor's yard and needed to get to the trees from my m-i-l's yard. I could see the trees hanging over into her yard, and because the guy was so quick to respond confidently with a reasonable explanation I lost most suspicion. I moved my car and he met me as I came back up and said "Here, let me show you what we're doing." as he walked back to the rear of the house. I followed and he started showing me tree limbs that needed trimming and cutting back. The problem was he was talking about my m-i-l's trees and not the neighbor's. I told him firmly "We are NOT spending any money on this house." and he said , "Yes, yes, we're not charging anything, the neighbors are paying for everything." and he continued showing me tree limbs coming up against my m-i-l's house and again I repeated what I said, and he just calmly responded "I know, but if you need work done....", "We don't." I responded cutting him off. He started to head back out front and I asked my m-i-l if this was the same guy from last year or if she knew him and she said she didn't. She has dementia pretty bad, so that really didn't mean much to me. They have at least four other victims who should be able to identify him and testify that he and his partner stole from them.
When we got back around to the front there was another guy and the main guy yelled at him "Did you get the trailer?". He shook his head "no" and the guy said "We'll be right back." They got in the truck and left. I then went inside with my m-i-l to discuss the pictures. The guys never came back and I told my m-i-l that I was right and they were just trying to scam her.
I was pissed at myself for dropping my initial suspicion. When I pulled up my first thought was to take a picture of the truck's license plate but when the guy came an talked to me asking me to move my car, I lost that thought. As I was leaving I remembered and got mad. BUT, I have a dashcam on my car, so when I got back to work I pulled the video of my arrival to my m-i-l's house and cut out some pretty good pictures of the guy and the truck. The only problem was there was no license plate on the front of the truck. But the front bumper did have some lettering, "BP 1107 L". I knew this meant something, perhaps they bought the truck used and the prior owner marked it for inventory. But who was that? I took the pictures to the neighborhood patrol office that is staffed by off-duty Houston Police Officers. When they heard the story, they told me the real scam.
The Back Yard Tree Trimming Scam. Guys show up to an elderly person's home, knock on the door telling them they need in the back yard to do work. They get the resident to go back into the yard so they can "show them what they are going to do". While the elderly person is in the back yard, the other crook goes into the house and steals what they can find. It is a prevalent problem in this area.
I went back to my m-i-l's house and told her about the scam and we walked through her house but couldn't tell if anything was taken. Her home would make a good episode of Hoarders so its tough to tell. Plus she can't remember if she has any jewelry anywhere or not. If she did, it was probably stolen last year by the previous scammers. Her purse was still sitting in the kitchen so "they didn't steal that" she said. Later, my m-i-l confided to my wife's sister that she believes they took $600 out of her purse. Of course, now she says she doesn't remember telling anyone that but there could have been cash in there as she does have some property that is being rented out and those renters pay cash monthly. We will need to see if she had made a deposit of $600 when her bank statement comes in (an account we do not have control of).
A co-worker who I told the story to sent me a link to a post on Reddit quoting the Harris County Constable's office's notice about the scam. The post quoted the Constable's office as saying "Unfortunately this story has played out a few times time recently at single-family homes in Precinct 1. There’s very little information about what they look like." I read the post and thought "I KNOW WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE, I HAVE PICTURES.".
So I sent the pictures to the Constable's office. They were able to track the truck to U-haul rental and to find the person who rented the truck that day. That guy, looks like the guy in the picture, has a rap sheet a mile long of theft, possession of stolen goods, and more. He also has about 10 aliases. They arrested him as John Thompson. But most of his aliases and associates are Hispanic. And he has as Hispanic accent, like someone who grew up in the Rio Grande Valley and grew up bi-lingual in a Spanish speaking household. So they aren't sure exactly who he is yet. But he is in jail right now. I told the Constable I was working with I'll do what's necessary to keep him there, but I couldn't testify that they stole anything from my m-i-l, only that they were there following the modus operandi of the scam.
When I pulled up in her drive way there was a white pickup backed up under her carport. I was immediately suspicious because last year (18 months ago) we had to take control of her bank accounts because she was getting scammed by some unscrupulous laborers who were charging her way too much to do some tree trimming and other odd jobs around the house. They took her for around $3,000 as best be could tell, for about $500 worth of work.
As soon as I turned my car off a guy came out to me and asked me if I could move my car because he needed to get his trailer in. I asked "What's going on?" still suspicious about the activity. The guy was slick. No hesitation, no signs of panic that he had been interrupted mid-crime. He told me they were doing some tree trimming on the back neighbor's yard and needed to get to the trees from my m-i-l's yard. I could see the trees hanging over into her yard, and because the guy was so quick to respond confidently with a reasonable explanation I lost most suspicion. I moved my car and he met me as I came back up and said "Here, let me show you what we're doing." as he walked back to the rear of the house. I followed and he started showing me tree limbs that needed trimming and cutting back. The problem was he was talking about my m-i-l's trees and not the neighbor's. I told him firmly "We are NOT spending any money on this house." and he said , "Yes, yes, we're not charging anything, the neighbors are paying for everything." and he continued showing me tree limbs coming up against my m-i-l's house and again I repeated what I said, and he just calmly responded "I know, but if you need work done....", "We don't." I responded cutting him off. He started to head back out front and I asked my m-i-l if this was the same guy from last year or if she knew him and she said she didn't. She has dementia pretty bad, so that really didn't mean much to me. They have at least four other victims who should be able to identify him and testify that he and his partner stole from them.
When we got back around to the front there was another guy and the main guy yelled at him "Did you get the trailer?". He shook his head "no" and the guy said "We'll be right back." They got in the truck and left. I then went inside with my m-i-l to discuss the pictures. The guys never came back and I told my m-i-l that I was right and they were just trying to scam her.
I was pissed at myself for dropping my initial suspicion. When I pulled up my first thought was to take a picture of the truck's license plate but when the guy came an talked to me asking me to move my car, I lost that thought. As I was leaving I remembered and got mad. BUT, I have a dashcam on my car, so when I got back to work I pulled the video of my arrival to my m-i-l's house and cut out some pretty good pictures of the guy and the truck. The only problem was there was no license plate on the front of the truck. But the front bumper did have some lettering, "BP 1107 L". I knew this meant something, perhaps they bought the truck used and the prior owner marked it for inventory. But who was that? I took the pictures to the neighborhood patrol office that is staffed by off-duty Houston Police Officers. When they heard the story, they told me the real scam.
The Back Yard Tree Trimming Scam. Guys show up to an elderly person's home, knock on the door telling them they need in the back yard to do work. They get the resident to go back into the yard so they can "show them what they are going to do". While the elderly person is in the back yard, the other crook goes into the house and steals what they can find. It is a prevalent problem in this area.
I went back to my m-i-l's house and told her about the scam and we walked through her house but couldn't tell if anything was taken. Her home would make a good episode of Hoarders so its tough to tell. Plus she can't remember if she has any jewelry anywhere or not. If she did, it was probably stolen last year by the previous scammers. Her purse was still sitting in the kitchen so "they didn't steal that" she said. Later, my m-i-l confided to my wife's sister that she believes they took $600 out of her purse. Of course, now she says she doesn't remember telling anyone that but there could have been cash in there as she does have some property that is being rented out and those renters pay cash monthly. We will need to see if she had made a deposit of $600 when her bank statement comes in (an account we do not have control of).
A co-worker who I told the story to sent me a link to a post on Reddit quoting the Harris County Constable's office's notice about the scam. The post quoted the Constable's office as saying "Unfortunately this story has played out a few times time recently at single-family homes in Precinct 1. There’s very little information about what they look like." I read the post and thought "I KNOW WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE, I HAVE PICTURES.".
So I sent the pictures to the Constable's office. They were able to track the truck to U-haul rental and to find the person who rented the truck that day. That guy, looks like the guy in the picture, has a rap sheet a mile long of theft, possession of stolen goods, and more. He also has about 10 aliases. They arrested him as John Thompson. But most of his aliases and associates are Hispanic. And he has as Hispanic accent, like someone who grew up in the Rio Grande Valley and grew up bi-lingual in a Spanish speaking household. So they aren't sure exactly who he is yet. But he is in jail right now. I told the Constable I was working with I'll do what's necessary to keep him there, but I couldn't testify that they stole anything from my m-i-l, only that they were there following the modus operandi of the scam.
