The Indiana State Police will return as speakers at the March 18 regular monthly Triad meeting.
The meeting will be held at the Anderson Mounds Mall at 10:30 a.m. at the Mounds Mall 10 movie theater. A member of the Indiana Attorney General’s staff will accompany state Troopers Tony Klettheimer and Ron Huff.
There will be time after the meetings for our speakers to answer questions from the audience. The meeting is open to the public.
The State Troopers were also speakers at our January meeting. Several issues were discussed that we felt needed more exploration so the troopers agreed to return this month.
We were pleasantly surprised how many of our loyal members showed up to our meeting while we were experiencing terrible winter weather conditions.
I had five phone calls the day of our January meeting asking if we were going to cancel the meeting because of the weather. We decided to hold the meeting and over 50 people showed up.
Affinity theft
One issue that needs more discussion is what is known as “Affinity Theft.”
The fraudsters who commit affinity theft frequently pretend to be friends with the victim with the sole intention of trying to exploit and take as much of the victim’s money as possible.
The relationship is created by the hustler to get the victim to become dependent on them. They will even try to alienate the victim from his family. The more the predator can isolate the victim from family and friends the more freedom they have to steal larger amounts of money.
In several local cases that Triad has investigated, it was established that women 30 or more years younger than the male victim use their ‘womanly wiles’ in a very seductive manner to separate elderly men from their money. In some cases, sexual activity may have been involved.
Women have also been victims of affinity theft.
These are very difficult cases for law enforcement agencies or prosecutors to investigate. Madison County Triad is working with several agencies to develop an alternative strategy to warn victims of the inherent dangers involved with associating with affinity thieves.
This will also be discussed at our February Triad meeting.
Florida lottery winner
The body of Abraham Shakespeare, a Florida man who collected a lump-sum lottery payment of $17 million, was found several weeks ago. He had not been seen since last April.
DeeDee Moore, 37, is being held on $1 million bond in Florida in connection with the death. Moore befriended Shakespeare after he won the lottery money under the pretense of writing a book about him. Moore acknowledged to officials that she had transferred $2 million of Shakespeare’s money into her bank account.
All too often, victims of affinity theft end up dead or missing. Other victims become bankrupt and become a financial burden on their children or other family members. Do they not only end up broke but also suffer from a variety of physical and mental issues. The victims do not take into consideration how their irresponsible actions can impact their families.
Dennis Lanane is chairman of Madison County Triad. His column appears the first Sunday of each month. He can be reached at qparadigm@iquest.net.
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Dennis Lanane: Affinity thefts tough to investigate, prosecute
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