A California woman allegedly made up the existence of a firefighter husband to bilk $11,000 from unsuspecting donors, police said.
Authorities said Ashley Bemis, 28, of San Clemente, conducted the elaborate scheme on social media to swindle $11,000 in cash and gifts out of charitable donors, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The 28-year-old woman allegedly wrote on a Facebook community page on August 10 that her husband, Shane Goodman, worked for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
“Shane works for Cal Fire and is out on the Holy Fire right now,” Bemis wrote in the now-deleted post, according to the Orange County Register. “I also have two other family members and many friends out on this fire and other fires burning here in California. I received a text today from Shane saying it’s pretty much a living hell out there battling the unpredictable ‘Holy Hell Fire.’”
Bemis proceeded to ask for monetary donations and items such as air mattresses, blankets, and baby wipes, authorities said.
But suspicions arose when another Cal Fire employee searched an internal database and found no trace of a firefighter with the name Shane Goodman. Other witnesses accused Bemis of duping people in the past by concocting stories—such as faking a pregnancy—to get people to donate items to her.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office opened an investigation into the alleged scam on August 17 but had not filed charges against Bemis as of Tuesday afternoon.
Sheriff’s deputies showed up at Bemis’s residence and conducted a search, discovering $11,000 worth of cash and gifts—allegedly obtained through charitable donors.
“Our investigators have worked diligently to put this case together, and it’s because they saw this was a well-planned, well-organized, well-executed fraud of people donating out of the good of their hearts,” sheriff’s department spokeswoman Carrie Braun told the Los Angeles Times.
The investigation is ongoing, and authorities are urging those who donated to the woman to get in touch with investigators.