Scam artists claiming to be local high school students have struck at least three neighborhoods in Potomac, Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia in the last 10 days.
Three days after she was arrested in Fairfax County for falsely soliciting money on behalf of a local cheerleading squad, a 19-year-old woman is believed to have worked the same scam in the Avenel neighborhood of Potomac.
Last week a man calling himself Lee Smith visited at least two homes of families whose children play lacrosse for the Potomac School in McLean, Va. The man claimed to be soliciting money for a fictional lacrosse team and tournament, said Ginny Fowler, a Potomac resident whose two sons play on the Panther lacrosse team.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY and Fairfax County police did not confirm a connection between the two cheerleading solicitation scams, but Avenel Community Association officials said that one of the women involved matched the description of the woman arrested by Fairfax police on Friday, May 11.
Tasha Mitchell, who has no fixed address, according to Fairfax police, was arrested on Friday, May 11 in Great Falls Va., and charged with three counts of obtaining money by false pretense. She posted $3,000 bond and was released the same afternoon, said Bud Walker, a spokesperson for Fairfax County Police.
“It’s the fact that they’re misdemeanor charges,” Walker said of Mitchell’s release. “If she can post bond we have to release her … [and] she can go on and do it somewhere else.”
Three days later, on Monday, May 14, a woman matching Mitchell’s description did the same thing in the Avenel neighborhood of Potomac, according to officials of the Avenel Community Association (ACA).
ACA officials said that the suspect, who was accompanied by another woman approximately the same age, walked up and down Beman Woods Way and Wingfoot Court Monday afternoon, asking Avenel residents to donate money.
The two women solicited approximately 75 homes and received donations from at least four of those residences; the donations ranged between $100 and $150.
The Avenel Community Association sent out a notification to its residents alerting them to the scam and advising them to put stop-orders on the checks.
An internet search showed that a woman by the same name has been arrested in connection to similar incidents in Texas, California and Oregon at least three times in the last six months.
BECAUSE SOLICITATION is prohibited in Avenel, Mitchell’s request for donations raised suspicion among some residents, said Lucy Wilson, the General Manager of the ACA. One neighbor alerted the ACA, who sent out a security guard to find the girls. When found, the girls gave fake names and addresses before running to a car on Oaklyn Drive and fleeing the scene. ACA security was able to obtain the make, model, and license number of the vehicle, Wilson said, information that was passed along to Montgomery County Police.
Despite what Wilson described as quick action by alert neighbors and ACA security, the two girls were convincing to many Avenel residents.
“They looked like normal teenagers, they didn’t look bad,” Wilson said. “It would have been very easy to assume that they were normal teenagers.”
As of Tuesday, May 22, Montgomery County Police were investigating the incident but had not made an arrest.
"We have their vehicle and license [information] so it's just a matter of time before we make an arrest," said Eric Burnett, a spokesperson for Montgomery County Police.
FOWLER SAID that the man who identified himself as Lee Smith showed up at the homes of two Panther lacrosse players — one in McLean, the other in D.C. — and requested donations to a fictional lacrosse team to help them play in a fictional lacrosse tournament. The two families quickly alerted school officials and police, Fowler said.
As of Tuesday, May 22, Fairfax County Police had no information about an arrest in the case.
“It’s weird,” Fowler said. “It seems someone did a little cross-referencing [between the team roster and] the phone book.”
Fowler said that the man was young-looking and clean-cut.
“Lacrosse players tend to cut a certain image and he apparently fit that bill,” Fowler said.