The Douglas County Sheriff's Office is investigating a report of fraud involving a Fallon man who said he made up a lie about his daughter's death to get money from sympathetic co-workers.
Timothy Lee Anderson, 39, allegedly collected $175 from five co-workers at Northern Nevada Pipeline in Minden after he told them Friday his daughter died and he needed money to fly to Las Vegas for her burial.
The victims said Anderson reportedly approached them June 14 and said his daughter had been taken by helicopter to the hospital and wouldn't be released until he purchased a respirator. He received an advance on his paycheck.
The next day, he said the girl had died while he and his wife were rushing her to the hospital.
The co-worker said she saw him Friday and he was "a wreck, crying and behaving like a father who just lost his daughter."
She and four other co-workers gave him $175 cash along with a reference so he could get a loan.
He called half an hour later and asked the co-worker if she could loan him $500, so he wouldn't have to borrow the money.
Suspicious, the co-worker contacted the Washoe County Coroner's Office and Washoe Medical Center who never heard of Anderson or his daughter.
Then she called his wife who confirmed that their daughter was alive and well.
Anderson reportedly called the co-worker to arrange pickup of the $500 as she was contacting the sheriff's office.
She confronted him and he admitted making up the story because he was having financial difficulties.
He reportedly gave some of the money to his wife and said he gambled the rest of it in an unsuccessful attempt to make money.
He told deputies he was an habitual liar and couldn't help himself.
He said he had no money to repay the debt.
n Graffiti was reported June 15 at Scarselli Elementary School.
Officials said a girl's name was written in black on the slides, a concrete area of the basketball court and a wall.
School personnel cleaned up the graffiti that day.
Vandalism also was reported June 16 on the water tower off Topsy Lane in northern Douglas County. The tower is located on Washoe tribal property.
Someone wrote "rez side," "NP," "XIV," "NATIVE," "REZ2X4," and drew a feather and two unknown markings on the water tower.
n An 18-year-old Sparks girl who was a resident of Aurora Pines detention facility has been charged with escape after she failed to return from a home visit.
Kristy Ipock was granted a furlough to visit her mother in Sparks. The mother contacted Aurora Pines to say her daughter ran away. Ipock was found at her boyfriend's apartment in Reno, but when the camp counselor went to pick her up, she was missing again.
The counselor had warned her if she ran away, she would be charged with escape as an adult.
Ipock is described as 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighing 125 pounds. She has brown hair and blue eyes and "Dude" tattooed on her lower back.
n A Gardnerville woman accused her 84-year-old mother of stealing $30,000 in jewelry while the elderly woman was visiting from California.
The victim said after her mother returned to Long Beach, Calif., she discovered several rings and a $6,000 watch missing from a safe in her bedroom.
The woman said her mother had visited June 2-9 and she told her to stay out of her bedroom. The alleged victim said she had to leave town the day before her mother left and when she returned, she found her mother's earring on top of the safe.
She was putting jewelry away when she noticed the items were missing.
The woman said she contacted her brother in California, who searched his mother's belongings, but all he found was a silk placemat that belonged to the alleged victim.
The 84-year-old denied taking the jewelry, according to her son.
n Two teenagers were cited for drinking after the sheriff's department Alcohol Compliance Enforcement unit picked them up June 17 in the sandpits in the Gardnerville Ranchos.
According to reports, the deputy pulled his patrol car alongside the suspect vehicle.
The driver rolled down his window and said, "Oh, you guys scared me. I thought you were the cops," according to the report.
"That's funny, because we are," the deputy replied.
The deputies said a female juvenile, believed to be a runaway, ran from the vehicle and escaped into the night.
They found several empty beer cans and an unopened six-pack in the vehicle which deputies made them pour out.
The boys said they picked up the female at the liquor store in the Ranchos.
They were cited for minors consuming alcohol and must appear in East Fork Justice Court on July 3.
n A couple who parked their car at Spooner Summit on Monday reported that credit cards, a cellphone, iPod, headphones, clothing and other items worth $1,200 were stolen from the locked vehicle after thieves broke a window for entry.
When the victims returned to their Johnson Lane home, they learned that two of the four credit cards had been used at a grocery store, gas station and motel at Lake Tahoe.
The card was refused when someone tried to withdraw $420 from an ATM machine at Lakeside Inn.
