Fake cleaners help steal $35K from man recovering from health issue, FL cops say
Two people pretending to be motel housekeepers swiped a man’s checkbook from his room as he was dealing with a medical emergency, then he was discharged from the hospital and learned he had lost $35,000, Florida police said.
Five people accused of collectively cashing dozens of checks belonging to the 65-year-old man have now been charged in the scheme, the Lake City Police Department announced in an April 7 news release.
McClatchy News reached out to the attorney representing multiple members of the accused fraud ring for comment April 8 but did not immediately receive a response.
The man had been staying at the Rodeway Inn motel while recovering from a health issue because he had follow-up doctor’s appointments nearby, police told McClatchy News.
That’s when two of the accused fraudsters took advantage of his health situation, pretended to be motel staff and broke in, according to police.
“During a medical event in which he was taken by EMS to the hospital, a male and female approached his room stating they were ‘housekeeping,’” police wrote in an arrest affidavit.
When the victim got out of the hospital, police said he found his checkbook had disappeared, and he had lost thousands of dollars in fraudulent check deposits from February to March.
Police said he reported the issue to them March 14. The previous day alone, the accused fraudsters had deposited $3,200 of his money into their accounts, police wrote in the affidavit. The day before that, it was $2,150, records show.
Investigators identified one member of the fraud ring as Samuel Chavez. He’s accused of depositing 28 stolen checks worth more than $21,000.
At least one of the checks went into his wife’s bank account, which was then overdrawn, according to police.
She was the sole account holder, said investigators, who added she would have known about the large amounts of money being deposited and withdrawn. She was arrested along with her husband.
Another woman, Krystal Koon, is accused of depositing seven stolen checks from the victim, then withdrawing the large sums at an ATM. Someone had written “OnlyFans” as the memo of multiple checks she deposited, police wrote in an affidavit.
Police believe Koon’s sister, Danina Goguen, as well as Goguen’s boyfriend, Tyler Jeter, were involved in the scheme. Jeter drove his accused accomplices in his truck to make deposits and withdrawals, officers said.
The five were booked in Columbia County jail, records show. These are their charges.
Samuel Chavez, 38:
28 counts of unlawful possession of personal identification of a person 60 or older
27 counts of forgery/uttering a false instrument
Organized fraud
Grand theft $10,000-$50,000 from a person 65 or older
Danyell Chavez, 42:
Organized fraud
Grand theft $10,000-$50,000 from a person 65 or older
Tyler Jeter, 31:
Unlawful possession of personal identification of a person 60 or older
8 counts of forgery/uttering a false instrument
Organized fraud
Grand theft $10,000-$50,000 from a person 65 or older
Krystal Koon, 32:
7 counts of unlawful possession of personal identification of a person 60 or older
7 counts of forgery/uttering a false instrument
5 counts of use of a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony
Organized fraud
Grand theft $10,000-$50,000 from a person 65 or older
Danina Goguen, 37:
Organized fraud
Grand theft $10,000-$50,000 from a person 65 or older
Lake City is in north Florida, about a 60-mile drive west from Jacksonville.