"Law Firm" Bandit Strikes Washington, DC

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A middle-aged lady is scamming Northwest DC residents. Posing as a
lawyer with a downtown firm, this woman is roaming the Chevy Chase,
Tenleytown, and Friendship Heights neighborhoods in Washington, DC,
tricking people into parting with their money. She claims to have been
locked out of her car and needs money for a cab home to Aspen Hill in
Maryland.

One person whom she attempted to scam said that she claimed
to work at Covington & Burling, a prestigious law firm, and
described her this way: "She is a light-skinned African-American woman,
in her 50s or 60s, about 5' or 5'2" or so, dressed nicely but quite
heavy on the makeup." This woman has also staked out the sidewalk in
front of the Whole Foods market on Wisconsin Avenue, NW. The last
reported incident was on May 11th.; most of the time, people don't
report her to the police.

Rewind a year and a half. In December 2005 a resident reported on a
neighborhood email list: "I was scammed last night in the parking lot
behind the CVS and Arucola restaurant at Chevy Chase Circle on
Connecticut. Ave by a woman saying she was a lawyer named Doris White
who worked at Covington & Burling and had locked her keys and purse
in her BMW and needed money to get home via taxi ($30 each way) to
Aspen Hill to get her spare keys. She was a well spoken, well dressed
very light skinned African American, slender, about 5'3", suitably
distraught, and unfortunately we fell for it, and even gave her our
business cards so she could return the money to us. We learned today
that there is a Doris White at Covington & Burling, but not the
same woman."

And in 2003 the Montgomery County Police reported: "Montgomery County
Police [with the assistance of the DC Police Department] have arrested
the woman believed to be responsible for more than 40 Theft by
Deception cases in the DC Metropolitan area. On Thursday, January 30,
members of the Montgomery County Police Repeat Offender Section (ROPE)
and the MPDC's Warrant Squad arrested Kim Bernice Peoples. Since
September 2002, Peoples has posed as a well-dressed, stranded-motorist
who has locked her BMW keys in the trunk of her car. She feigns that
she has airline reservations that she will not be able to use unless
she can return to her home to obtain her second set of keys. Pretending
to be a lawyer working for a DC law firm, Peoples asks her victims,
most of whom are elderly, for money for cab fare. She promises to repay
her victims and provides a telephone number to the law firm as
collateral for payment. Peoples has conducted this scam in Montgomery
County, DC, and Arlington and Fairfax counties, mostly near Metro
stations. She has been charged with five counts of Theft and five
counts of Identity Theft."

It's not the same person all these years posing as a lawyer, but it is
a common scam -- probably because it's so effective. Washington, DC
Police Second District Commander Andy Solberg said, "I've dealt
with variations on this theme in every part of the city. Sick children
waiting nearby in a broken down car, money needed to get a locksmith to
help enter a home where the key broke off in the lock, ailing parents
who need assistance with cab fare to get to the emergency room,
etc....How you part with your money is up to each of you, but even if
you believe that the person sincerely needs help, call us and we'll
help those who really are trying to get sick kids to the hospital, fix
busted axles, call locksmiths, and so on."

In these neighborhoods of Northwest Washington, DC the scam seems to involve
somebody posing as a lawyer. So, perhaps before giving money to
somebody you encounter on the street, it's a good idea to ask them to
name all the Supreme Court justices.