William was at his son’s house for Thanksgiving when his cell phone rang with shocking news.
“Noah was playing in the street and got run over by a car,” the man on the other line told him. “He’s being [air-lifted] to Cleveland right now.”
William, 81, of Toledo, had met the man in November, 2013, a year earlier, and had been told that Noah was the man’s son. The man hung up to take another call, but he called back five minutes later.
“He died. I’ve got to get to Cleveland to get the body,” he told William.
Then, as in every conversation they’d ever had, he asked William for money. It was the latest request from the man, John Heaton, 34, of Toledo, who had received more than $120,000 from William between November, 2013, and last November.
But this time, William decided he couldn’t do it. He was 400 miles from Heaton and told him to ask his family for the money.
Over the next week, William, with the help of his children, figured out that while he thought he was helping Heaton, he had been scammed with a series of elaborate lies, with the son’s death just the latest and most dramatic falsehood.
William, who feels extreme embarrassment and asked that his full name not be used, was a victim of financial exploitation, a form of abuse against the elderly and a felony.
Financial exploitation is the third most-common form of elder abuse, ahead of sexual, physical, and emotional, but behind neglect from others and self-neglect, according to a report from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
Problem on the rise
These types of crimes affect the 60 and older population and are a growing concern across the country. Last year, 13,151 cases of elder abuse were reported in Ohio.
Locally, in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan, reports of elder abuse have been increasing consistently. In the past four to five years, reports of elder abuse have jumped over 25 percent in each of Lucas, Ottawa, Fulton, Wood, Lenawee, and Monroe counties.
The reports and any subsequent investigations are handled through Adult Protective Services, part of each county’s Department of Job and Family Services in Ohio or the Department of Health and Human Services in Michigan. Protective Services workers in each county said they have noticed the increase and expect it to continue for a number of contributing reasons.
“So many of our people are becoming elderly, and those are the people with the money,” said Bob Baumgartner, the investigator for the Senior Protection Unit of the Lucas County Prosecutor’s office, who is 74.
According to data from the Scripps Gerontology Center at Ohio’s Miami University, the population of each county in northwest Ohio is at least 17 percent 60 or older, with that number projected to grow to more than 22 percent by 2020.
A report from the Ohio development services agency indicated that “Ohio’s population as a whole is getting older. The nation as a whole is also aging, but not as quickly as Ohio.”
Thomas Jones, the social services supervisor in Fulton County, said that in addition to the growing population, more people are paying attention to elder abuse, which creates more reports.
“I think part of it is awareness,” he said. “I think it’s being taken more and more seriously.”
Elder abuse isn’t a new issue, but it’s simply being recognized more often. According to the National Center on Elder Abuse, “One in 10 Americans age 60 and over experienced abuse over one year, and many experienced it in multiple forms.”
Now, more groups are making an effort to spread the word, and more reports are coming in.
Under-reported crime
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine launched the Elder Justice Initiative in 2014, which has focused on increasing resources and education about elder abuse. Similarly, Protective Services in many counties in northwest Ohio have created hot lines for reporting the crime and have reached out to help educate leaders on the issue.
“There are a lot more banks reporting now” that will notify APS of suspicious financial activity, said Tonya Camden, who oversees Adult and Child protective services in Wood County.
But even with increased numbers, crimes of elder abuse often still go unreported.
The national center on abuse cites studies that claim only one in every 23 cases of elder abuse were known by authorities, and only one out of every 44 cases of financial exploitation was reported.
“Because they’re threatened [that] they’re going to be put in a nursing home by these suspects, family in some cases, we don’t get them reported,” Mr. Baumgartner said. “I don’t know how many reports we could have if we want to know the whole truth in Lucas County or other counties.”
Embarrassment, on top of any intimidation, is another reason seniors aren’t comfortable coming forward. William has shared his story with his children, investigator Mr. Baumgartner, and The Blade, but he is reticent to talk about it to anyone else, including his friends.
Web of lies
In the early fall of 2014, William received a letter discouraging him from giving any more money to Heaton, but he said he didn’t trust it because it was anonymous. By that point, he had given between $70,000 and 80,000 to Heaton and held out hope that he might get some of that money back. Later, he learned that the letter had come from someone in Heaton’s family.
William’s case follows many patterns that Mr. Baumgartner said are common for financial exploitation.
“Usually they’re by themselves. It’s awful hard to scam somebody when there’s two people, husband and wife,” he said. “The victims are lonely and are looking for someone to pay attention to them here, locally, not over the phone.”
At one point, Heaton claimed to need money because he had kidney disease, the same disease William’s wife had when she died in 2011. Though William grew somewhat suspicious, given his experience with his wife’s illness, Heaton gave William legitimate doctor’s names to back up his story.
“I thought we were getting to be friends. I don't know exactly how you would describe it. I thought I was trying to help him out. He was somebody that really needed help. I guess he did, just in a different way than I was thinking about,” William said.
William said Heaton told him he needed money for tools to get a job, for trips to Florida to settle his father’s estate, and for child-support payments. Mr. Baumgartner said these types of scams also can occur with contractors who never intend to finish their jobs, anonymous phone calls, or over the Internet.
However, it’s more common for a family member to take money from an older relative, he said.
“It’s people who can’t wait for the grandparents to die to get the money, so they hoodwink the elderly into giving them the power of attorney or threaten that they’re going to put them in a home if they don’t give them the power,” he said. With the power of attorney, or sometimes even without it, they take the elder’s money for themselves.
When family is involved, it’s sometimes difficult to take cases of elder abuse to prosecution.
“I think other members of the family get together and say. ‘Grandma, you don’t want to see me go to jail.’ I’ve had a couple [victims] who have charged them, and they’ve changed their mind,” Mr. Baumgartner said.
William thought to keep records of the money he gave to Heaton, but some elderly victims who face dementia or other mental illnesses sometimes can’t remember losing the money.
For those cases that do go to prosecution, probation and restitution are common sentences, Mr. Baumgartner said. However, “usually a restitution hearing or order is just an academic affair because the people that steal this money usually aren’t good for it,” said Mark Mulligan, Ottawa County prosecutor.
Last week, Heaton, of the 3700 block of Oak Forest Drive, was sentenced by Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Ian English to 30 months in prison for the crime against William. Judge English also ordered Heaton to pay $121,700 in restitution to William.
Defense attorney Jerome Phillips told the court Heaton had a number of physical and mental health issues that had left him disabled and, at the time of his crimes, was abusing prescription drugs and heroin. He said Heaton, who cried openly at sentencing, now was undergoing methadone treatment for his drug dependency and had been clean and sober since November, 2014.
William said he doesn’t expect to get any of the money back from Heaton. “I think the moon will rise in the middle of the day before that happens. I don't know how anybody could believe he can pay restitution,” he said.
But William and Mr. Baumgartner said it’s still important to prosecute cases of elder abuse, even if victims can’t get their money back.
“I’m not looking for revenge,” William said. “I just want him to learn a lesson that you can’t do this kind of thing. It’s not acceptable.”
First Published August 24, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
