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Summer
scammers are in full bloom:
elderly
at greatest risk
By Kelley
Walker Perry
Shelbyville News, May 28, 2003
Indiana - ’Tis
the season. But unlike Christmas, spring is not a time of goodwill toward
men — instead, it’s the perfect season to scam the elderly.
Home improvement scams abound in the springtime, according to Jerry
Kiefer, Adult Protective Services (APS) investigator. He is responsible
for the investigation of such crimes in Shelby, Hancock and Johnson
counties.
On Tuesday, Terry L. Stevens, 41, of Fairland was arrested on three counts
of Class D felony theft for his alleged role in bilking an 88-year-old
Fairland woman out of her savings.
Stevens performed home improvement work for the victim, including roofing,
plumbing, electrical wiring, window replacement and rodent removal. He
allegedly overcharged the woman for services and products.
The victim’s son contacted Kiefer after he discovered Stevens had been
billing his mother for seemingly intangible work over a two-year period.
Kiefer interviewed the victim in January at Heritage House nursing
facility, where she was staying to recover from hip problems.
She could not recall why she wrote some of the checks to Stevens. But some
included replacing two windows for $1,639; removing a squirrel from her
attic and patching its entrance for $780; and repairing a leaky basement
for $490. The basement job was not completed.
Stevens was investigated particularly for water softener salt deliveries
made or promised in 2002. He supposedly delivered 3.69 tons of salt from
Feb. 26 to Aug. 7 of 2002 — an amount in excess of 147 individual bags.
Stevens’ salt deliveries sound excessive to John Moffett of Moffett’s
WaterCare. He has been servicing water softeners since 1977, and even
taking mechanical failure or demand-regeneration into account, a little
more than one ton would be at the high end of normal, Moffett said.
The victim lives alone in a single-family home with a standard-sized water
softener. Every gallon of water in the tank melts 15 pounds of salt. About
42 pounds per month is a normal rate of salt usage for an individual,
Moffett said.
But Stevens was paid $658 for one salt delivery he never even made.
“We have a fairly prominent elderly population in the county. The
potential for ripping these people off is just tremendous,” Kiefer said.
As an APS investigator, Kiefer protects the rights of endangered adults
who are incapacitated or who make decisions which are an immediate danger
to themselves or others. Most of his cases do not involve truly endangered
adults — they are simply victims of crimes.
Elderly victims might be easily intimidated, frightened or embarrassed.
Perhaps their hearing is not what it used to be, and it doesn’t take
much effort to make them believe the deal had been made for $6,700, rather
than $600 to $700.
Then, too, many of the victims in home improvement scam cases come from a
different era, when a person’s word was his bond and deals were put
together on a handshake, Kiefer said.
“It doesn’t work like that anymore,” he said.
But that vulnerability is just what scammers are counting on.
“It makes it easy for the schemers and scammers of the world to do
this,” Kiefer noted.
Crimes of violence reportedly are on a downward trend, while non-violent
crimes — such as identity theft and scamming the elderly — are on the
rise. Kiefer attributes that trend to the fact that not only are these
crimes easier to commit, but they also carry less in the way of penalties.
Victims sometimes don’t report their experiences out of fear — they
don’t want their relatives to think they are unable to live alone and
make their own decisions, he added.
But he still investigated about 300 reports last year and is well on track
for exceeding that number in 2003.
“My caseload is skyrocketing,” Kiefer said. “The prosecutor’s
office here in Shelby County is very concerned about any crimes against
the elderly.”
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© 2002 Global Action on Aging
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