A8


From Page One


S


KLMNO LOOK or your


WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2010


INSIDE TODAY’S PAPER MAILBOX THIS WEEK!


PHOTOS BY KATHERINE FREY/THE WASHINGTON POST


John Howard, who has convictions for theft and other crimes, was indicted in January in the Beattie case. Ted and Eleanor Beattie have a copy of his mug shot and a receipt he wrote for roof repairs.


Reported scams against the elderly are ‘tip of the iceberg’


scams from A1


Officials in the District said the number of financial exploitations against older people has not in- creased, but more seniors are fall- ing prey to offshore lottery-win- ning scams. “There’s absolutely more scam-


ming going on,” said Gail Nardi, head of adult services for Vir- ginia’s Department of Social Ser- vices. “It’s outrageous to the point you say, ‘Nah, that couldn’t have happened.’ But I see it every day.” She didn’t have to look too far last month. A caregiver and a so- cial worker at the Grayson County (Va.) Department of Social Ser- vices were charged with taking more than $24,000 from the bank account of an 89-year-old client who had gone to the agency for care and companionship. Some cases get even bigger headlines. After a five-month trial last


year, the son of New York philan- thropist and socialite Brooke As- tor was convicted of stealing more than $1 million while she had Alz- heimer’s disease. In Montgomery, an ex-con was convicted this year of befriending an 84-year-old widow, persuading her to marry him in the front seat of his car and raiding her bank account of near- ly $131,000. Less known but more common


are victims such as Ted and Elea- nor Beattie, 96 and 92, who live in a split-level red-brick house on a leafy street in Silver Spring.


Suspicious payments


Ted Beattie grew up outside Ox- ford, England, sold British Rail tickets as a teenager and joined the Royal Navy. During World War II, he served as a payroll spe- cialist aboard the HMS Warspite, surviving heavy battles off the coast of Europe. The experience landed him a


You’ve Never Seen Savings Like This!


REMEMBER TO CLIP THE COUPONS; NONE WILL BE AVAILABLE IN STORE.


bookkeeping job at the British Embassy in Washington. He met Eleanor, a stenographer for the War Department, at a dance. They married in 1947 and raised four children in a three-bedroom house. At 83, Ted Beattie retired from the embassy. By his 90s, he had received a di- agnosis of dementia and agreed to assign financial power of attorney to one of his four children, Chris. Ted Beattie continued reading weekly issues of the Economist, trimming his yard with an electric mower, tending to a vegetable garden and insisting that the only place he and Eleanor would ever move was to the Catholic cem- etery down the street. Chris Beattie knew his father enjoyed paying his own bills and dealing with his own finances. He was hesitant to interfere. But last summer, he asked his father’s bank for a printout of his parents’ checking account. What he saw — three checks, for $1,550, $1,500 and $2,000, sprinkled among smaller and more specific payments to utili- ties — horrified him. His parents had hired two peo- ple who called themselves handy- men. One had arrived unan- nounced, propped a ladder against their house, climbed up on the roof and told the Beatties they needed work done. Chris Beattie could find only one re- ceipt, scrawled on a torn sheet of paper.


“Calk everything on roof w/new shingles around chimney,” part of it read.


Piecing together the story with his parents, Chris Beattie learned his father had paid $1,550 for the purported roof work and $1,500


Ted Beattie, 96, who has dementia, gave financial power of attorney to one of his children but still liked to handle his own finances.


on postlocal.com


Watch Ted Beattie and officials talk about what was done, or not done, to his roof.


when the man returned and said he needed more money for the same job. Chris Beattie saw no evidence that anything had been done to the roof and took his fa- ther to the police department. The scam happens in suburbs across the country. “They’ll case the neighborhood,” said John Creel, who investigated the Beat- ties’ case for Montgomery Coun- ty’s Office of Consumer Protec- tion. “They’ll look for senior citi- zens, and they’ll do what they can to steal money from them by of- fering to pave driveways, fix roofs, trim trees, whatever. Chances are, you’re not getting your money’s worth, or it’s a total scam.”


Tightening oversight


As the scams become better known, authorities are trying to help. Robert Roush, a geriatrics professor at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, helped launch a program that encourag- es physicians to look out for finan- cial abuse among their elderly pa- tients. Doctors receive a pocket guide with recommended ques- tions to ask, including: Who man- ages your money day-to-day? How is that going? Do you have a will? Has anyone asked you to change it?


The doctors are asked to report


suspected cases of swindling to lo- cal agencies. Many of those agencies want banks to play a more active role and require bank employees who review accounts or tellers to re- port suspicious behavior, such as an older customer showing up with a new friend to transfer funds. “That’s the best way for us to


find out what’s going on,” said Ka- ren Hannigan, supervisor of adult protective services in Arlington County.


At least 17 states and the Dis-


trict require banks to do such re- porting, according to the Amer- ican Bankers Association. Banks in Virginia and Maryland do not and say that voluntary reporting is more practical.


Prior convictions John Howard, 27, didn’t tell the


Beatties of his past when he went to their home with his ladder. He’d been convicted in Virginia of marijuana distribution and passing bad checks and had run afoul of a law that forbids work- ing as a contractor without a li- cense or certificate.


By 2004, he was venturing into


Montgomery County to work on homes. A co-worker came under


Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.


“It’s outrageous to the point you say, ‘Nah, that couldn’t have happened.’ But I


see it every day.” — Gail Nardi, head of adult services for Virginia’s Department of Social Services, on financial exploitation of senior citizens


suspicion for stealing blank checks from the bedroom of a 78- year-old Bethesda woman, who at the time was caring for her hus- band, who had Alzheimer’s dis- ease. Howard was charged with passing $7,650 worth of forged checks from the account, court records say. “The defendant and his buddy, his co-conspirator, seek out elder- ly women,” prosecutor Ryan Wechsler said in court. “He preyed on her age. He preyed on the fact that she was basically liv- ing alone and making these deci- sions for herself.” Howard was convicted of theft and other counts. At sentencing, he said his days of addiction to pain pills were behind him. “I really have turned my life around,” he told Circuit Court Judge Eric Johnson. Johnson told him he was still young enough to do so and sen- tenced him to a week in jail: “Do your seven days. Go back to Cul- peper. Don’t do anything like this anymore.” Howard was indicted Jan. 21 on eight counts in the Beattie case, including financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult and acting as a contractor without a license. Howard could not be reached to comment through phone num- bers listed in court records. He did not show up for two recent court matters in the case, and court records indicate that he has not retained a lawyer. Back at his home, Ted Beattie vows to stay put with Eleanor, even as he knows his memory is fading. “It’s not that good,” he said.


“That’s the truth. It sort of flashes. I can remember a lot of things for years back, even my childhood, and sometimes I can’t even re- member what happened yester- day.”


But he said he is willing to testi- fy.


“I’ve always trusted people for their honesty,” he said. “All he wanted to do was extract money.” morsed@washpost.com


Store Coupon | Expires 7/14/10 | Do Not Double


12 oz. Cans, All Varieties Pepsi


24 Pack coupon


Must Buy 2 with


FINAL PRICE - MUST BUY 2


None available in stor Must buy 2.


Limit two (2) 24 packs per coupo Limit one (1) coupon per househo


LIMIT 2 *Coupon shown here is not valid. VOID O


$4.00 savings on 2 with coupon Must clip coupon;


399 ea.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52