By Joseph Knoop
A Carmel Lutheran church was the victim of an alleged financial scam last week.
Pastor George Ferch of Bethlehem Lutheran Church at 13225 North Illinois St. in Carmel said the church may have been scammed out of as much as $750 of congregation members’ money by a man claiming to need airfare for a flight to Beirut.
According to Ferch, the man said his parents were killed in an attack on Christians in the Middle East. The man stood up during the church service on May 10 and told everyone he needed to fly Beirut to identify their bodies.
“He was very good, really smooth,” Ferch said. “He called Saturday night and asked for a prayer for his parents, so I’m like ‘Sure, we’ll have a prayer.’”
Ferch said after the man told his story, the church put out an offering basket for him and the church members gave him $750.
“We did the right thing, he did the wrong thing,” Ferch said. “I’m proud of the generosity of the congregation. Sometimes you get ripped off. You just want to not be cynical about things like this.”
The man then asked a congregation member for a ride back to the Marten House hotel. Suspicious, the congregation member began questioning the man’s motives. Ferch and others looked into the matter on the Internet and a quick Google search showed that perhaps this same man allegedly scammed other churches out of money in other states.
Ferch said the man gave a name, though it was likely this was an alias, as Ferch also said the man bore a resemblance to an individual charged with a similar crime in Boston in early 2012 who went by a different name.
The Carmel Police Dept. has issued no such verification of the individual’s identity, as the investigation is still ongoing.
“Bottom line is, [the CPD]trying to decide if there’s been a crime committed,” said Lt. Joe Bickel.
No other details have been released, and nobody has been charged with any of the alleged crimes.
Pastor Ferch told Current he just wants to send out the alert so other nearby churches don’t fall prey to scams as well.
