Federal Way News

Sometimes the worst of events happen to those who seek to do the most good in the world.

So it happened to Jim and Marie Watt, a Federal Way couple who operate a small, charitable Christian ministry in Federal Way.

With her mind still struggling with disbelief and horror, Marie sought to share with the public how she and her husband lost $8,500 in a confidence scam last week. Through their story, she hopes to expose the deeds of a disturbingly clever con artist who fleeced her husband into willingly withdrawing money from his bank account.

"He was the smoothest guy I've ever met," said Jim, 82, of the Middle Eastern man who approached him in the driveway after he returned from taking his wife to an exercise class at Foundation House.

"I'm your neighbor four houses up the street," the man asked, "don't you remember me?"

When Jim answered no, the con man reassured him that he knew Marie well, and that he and his wife, whom he called Ellen, had stopped to talk to her about the flower garden the Watts have planted in the front of their home.

The con man told Jim that he worked as a manager for the construction site for the new shopping center under development at 348th and Pacific Highway, while his wife taught summer school in Federal Way.

The man seemed convincing, Jim said from the living room in the Campus Woods home he and his wife have owned for 20 years, and he began feeding Jim a believable story about his father suffering from a stroke in St. Francis Hospital.

"He asked me if I believed children should help out their parents in times of need," said Jim, a life-long minister who has helped sponsor mission and aid trips throughout the Middle East, "and I told him I did."

The thief first baited Jim with a simple request, asking him if he would help out his grieving family by driving a car from the repair shop in Des Moines back to Federal Way. Jim-always willing to lend a hand, his wife says-obliged.

They left the neighborhood for the Des Moines Midas store on Pacific Highway; the thief, about 50 years old Jim said, driving them north in a gray late-90s Honda.

The man went inside, Jim recalled, and returned with a message that the car required a few additional adjustments and would be ready later. As the two waited in the Midas parking lot, the man asked Jim for yet another favor.

His ailing father needed his help, the con man said, and he had no choice but to sell the Honda to pay for the mounting medical bills. He intended to collect $22,000 for the six-year-old vehicle, he said, but asked Jim to borrow the $3,500 he needed for the title transaction.

Without hesitation, Jim took the bait.

"It sounded logical at the time," Jim said of the seemingly peculiar request to lend more such a large sum of money to a stranger, "but I'm 82 and not good at spotting dishonesty, subterfuge and deception."

The man, who gave the name Don Menn, drove them to the Key Bank in Midway, where Jim withdrew $3,500 and handed over the stack of cash.

An additional $7,000 is all he would need, the man said, as he drove to the Washington Mutual Bank at the Fred Meyer in Burien. There, Jim withdrew the maximum of $5,000 and delivered it to the man, this time with a bank receipt, account number and his signature. The young clerk, Jim added, only asked to see his ID before releasing the cash.

Still seeking more money, the scammer headed for the Washington Mutual Bank in downtown Burien. Inside, the clerks refused to comply with Jim's request to withdraw the final $2,000.

At that point-after he had handed over $8,500-Jim began to grow suspicious.

"I told him: 'I'm violating some very important things. I don't think this is right. My wife and I never make any financial decisions without talking it over together,'" Jim said.

The thief responded quickly, Jim recounted, seemingly prepared for his victim to become weary as he continued to push for more money.

"Then don't tell her," Jim remembered the con man saying, "I don't tell my wife everything I do." Besides, the thief said, "Everything will be returned to you by Saturday."

Jim followed the man's advice and kept the details of his encounter a secret for three days.

When she finally figured out what had happened, Marie said, she was speechless. The couple immediately retraced Jim's steps and followed up on the few shreds of information the thief had offered.

But the Midas shop had never heard of Don Menn, nor had the construction crew at 348th and Highway 99.

St. Francis Hospital had no record of the man's father, and Jim met the real owner of the house allegedly occupied by the fictitious Don and Ellen. The thief even managed to avoid security cameras by staying in the car while Jim withdrew the money inside the banks.

As the pieces of the man's identity began to slip away, so did Jim's chance of retrieving his money.

"He couldn't have done it without my husband's help, though," said Marie, who admits she found it disturbing that those banks would honor such abnormal transactions, "we've never, ever taken out money with our credit cards."

"I just couldn't believe he had done that," she said. "By the time this is through, it's probably going to cost us $10,000."

Marie said that she and her husband spent most of last week trying to change bank accounts and credit cards, and notifying the police.

With little evidence and no positive identification of the scammer, the Watts have little to offer the authorities.

"I've got the sense that they're not able to do anything," Jim said.

But the couple still remains perplexed as to who would want to target Jim for a confidence scam.

"We're Christians and we're very pro-Israel," said Marie, who partners with Jim in their ministry, "We believe someone got on our website, took down our names and our address, and targeted us."

Jim said his son suspected someone fanatically loyal to the Palestinians might have taken offense to some of his writings. Their Beth Chesed Messianic ministry, while small in its congregation, has channeled more than $100,000 to Israel, Jim said.

"I thought that might be the case at first," Jim said, "but I later crossed out that idea." "But whoever it was had been watching our house for a long time," said Jim. The man went through the hassle of learning his wife's name-Jim said they use a locking mailbox and the con artist must have gathered their information elsewhere-and memorized his schedule well enough to know that Jim would be alone that morning.

As the Watts struggle to recoup their shattered finances and repay their credit card debt, they have managed to find time to spread a warning to citizens of Federal Way.

Marie hopes her husband's mistake will serve as an alert about the criminals who prey upon unsuspecting victims.

"I want this to be a warning for other seniors," Marie said. "My hope is that someone else can learn from our mistakes."