A scam investigation that started in Douglas in late May took authorities 800 miles into east Texas and landed a 61-year-old Texas resident in the Coffee County Jail on theft by deception charges charges.
This was one of those all-too-common fraud complaints in which a person solicits money for a non-existent item. In this case, a man named Bill Miller who claimed he was from New York contacted a 71-year-old Douglas woman and said he worked for Steve Harvey. He said if the victim would wire him a certain amount of money, he would send her a car.
According to an incident report from the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office, the victim wired nearly $6,000 from three different local banks to Woodforest National Bank in Mount Pleasant, Texas. The person who received the money was 61-year-old Patricia Reyna of a Mount Pleasant address.
The victim contacted a deputy and reported what had gone on. Even after wiring the money to Texas, Bill Miller had contacted the victim and asked for $500 in order to deliver the vehicle. The deputy told the victim it was a scam and not to send any more money.
Officers investigated the incident and alerted authorities in Mount Pleasant, Texas. Last week, officers out there conducted a traffic stop on Reyna’s vehicle. She was arrested and brought to Douglas, where she was booked into the Coffee County Jail on three count of theft by deception. She is being held without bond.
“Scamming is getting out of hand. We don’t get the chance to catch them very often. This was one time we did and we were going to make sure we got her back here,” stated Chief Deputy Fred Cole.