His St. Paul hotel swindle reveals long history of deception
By Tad Vezner, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
Based on what he tells family, women he's courting and even a judge,
But at least one lie caught up with him last month, when he pleaded guilty in
Alldred, 43, who declined to comment for this report, was given a conditional release and will be sentenced next month. In court, his attorney, who also declined to comment, noted that Alldred's criminal history in his home state of
But based on court documents, as well as interviews with past family members, acquaintances and five former girlfriends, his history is anything but unclear.
"He's an excellent, excellent con man. He becomes this person that we have been looking for," said
"But in this case, he got the better of us."
Beyond his six
One woman, a childhood friend, gave Alldred
That was just in the past three years.
His method and persona were practically flawless, including dozens of false names, forged papers, a phony deed, photocopies and computer screen captures proving his purported riches, and a willingness to pursue his lies to the limit, former acquaintances say.
Then he would disappear, leaving only pawn shop receipts, unpaid bills and at least four restraining orders.
A MAN IN PAIN
The year before he met
Most of the convictions related to Alldred's practice of entering emergency rooms and lying in order to get pain medications. According to court documents, Alldred claimed to be many things: a ranking firefighter, a physician doing pediatric cystic fibrosis research, a powerful executive.
Amid gripping work stories, Alldred complained of heart pain. Tests revealed little, and some doctors reported "unusual" symptoms. Regardless, most admitted him. He was charming, easy to talk to.
One registered nurse told insurance investigators that he "got along famously" with Alldred and was "saddened to think that someone so young who wanted to find a cure for cystic fibrosis had such a short life ahead of him."
He was finally caught in a
The uniform didn't fool the
"Alldred gave detailed stories on his jobs and was very convincing to those he deceived," noted Capt.
A 2006
When released, Alldred entered a treatment program, which taught addicts, among other things, "how to be honest." It's unclear from court records if he completed it.
'LIKE A NORMAL, GREAT GUY'
In 2010, Alldred met Santucci -- an elementary school teacher in
He claimed to be a University of
"He just seemed like a normal, great guy, good values, dressed really nice," Santucci said. "It just clicked."
Their wedding took place in the spring of 2011. About a year later, a few weeks before Christmas 2012, the lights in the house died. Alldred, after some time on the phone -- ostensibly with the power company -- said the wiring in the house was shot. They'd have to move to a hotel for a few weeks.
The in-laws asked about the dogs: Tracy's pair of prized purebred boxers.
"Don't worry," Alldred told them. "I'm going over there and feeding them, every day."
Still,
"Who are you?" she asked.
"Who are you?" one of the men replied.
"This is my daughter's home."
"No, it's not. My boss bought this in a foreclosure auction. In June."
It turned out to be true. After getting the packers to let them take Tracy's belongings to their own family storage, they discovered that the home -- bought in 2009 for
'NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT'
Apologetic, Alldred said he'd handle it. Within a month, he produced a letter from an attorney that included a Deed of Reconveyance, stating the
"See? You have nothing to worry about," they remember him telling them.
But the attorney who supposedly sent the letter told the
"I've talked to people on the phone that were his 'partners,' attorneys supposedly working for him saying 'everything was fine, everything was taken care of,' "
Other former girlfriends said they saw Alldred conduct phone "conversations" -- sometimes strikingly long ones -- with people who later told them they had never spoken with him or had no idea who he was.
An email from
The Santuccis said they were told by the county attorney's office that because Alldred had not benefited financially from the loss of the home, no charges could be brought. A spokeswoman at the attorney's office declined comment on the case, noting the office wouldn't comment on investigations that had not led to charges.
The family said they later found an eviction order under a freezer in the garage.
As for the dogs, Tracy never saw them again.
'I GOT SNOWED'
But
"He would show them to me, pictures of them, say they were his dogs," said Azuar, a
She remembers the dates exactly.
The daughter of
Azuar, recently separated from her former husband, met Alldred on eHarmony. He said he was a millionaire investment banker. He had stories, pictures for everything.
"I'm very defensive; I'm a cop's daughter. I don't normally fall for that kind of crap, the 'I love you,' the niceness," Azuar added. "He was just the sweetest person I ever went out with. He was smart, and I really liked that."
But things went wrong on a trip to
It fell apart one day on the beach, when she saw his driver's license. The name and birth date didn't match those of the man she thought she knew.
"I got snowed," Azuar said. She later discovered that she was stuck with bills for two of the hotels. In all, about
She hopped a plane home that evening and -- in addition to getting an emergency restraining order -- called her local real estate agent.
HOUSE SHOPPING
The week before, Alldred had taken Azuar out "house shopping," saying he hoped to settle down. He retained
Then came the time to put faith money into escrow.
"He gave me a screen shot of proof of funds, over a million dollars. It looked like a stock account," Richards said. "I trade, too, and he knew the right things to say."
Two other real estate agents told the
As Alldred took the weekend trip to
A few weeks later, Alldred was instead talking to Hawaiian real estate agent
'THE LEVEL OF THE LIES AND DECEPTION WAS INCREDIBLE'
Huang was happy for her friend,
"The first week, it's like, 'Oh my gosh, he's my dream man,' " said Harvey, a social media strategist.
But Alldred planted red flags quickly.
"He wanted to 'put me on the house,' sent a form with all kinds of financial info," Harvey said. Alldred showed her a website touting his financial statements, but she noticed that the word "checking" was misspelled.
"I started to realize the level of the lies and deception was incredible," Harvey said. She cut things off.
The property deal with Huang fell through: Despite a purchase agreement, Alldred's good-faith funds never arrived.
Weeks later, Harvey began to receive bouquets of flowers, Tiffany necklaces and teddy bears in the mail. Soon, Alldred sent pictures of "his home" -- this one in
Then she received a call from
EXPENSIVE TIES, TAILORED SUITS
"Did he buy you jewelry? He did it with my AMEX," Pardini, owner of the
Pardini met Alldred on Facebook in early 2013. They chatted a while, and he fell out of sight. Eight months later, on
Alldred told her he'd had a dream about her, and added: "You don't seem like you're feeling well. You need someone to take care of you."
Admittedly, Pardini said, she was in rough shape. Glad for the help, she flew Alldred to
In
Alldred also purportedly opened a line of credit on Pardini's American Express account, accumulating
Pardini recalls Alldred -- who showed up on her door step in board shorts and a T-shirt -- suddenly wearing expensive ties and tailored suits.
But at the Ritz-Carlton in
She confronted him; he ran out.
"I gave his clothes to the
Months later, Alldred turned up in
'WHEN DID I BECOME A TARGET?'
Many of the women who've met Alldred wonder about his job history.
During his time in jail in 2007, a letter was sent to the
The letter, purportedly from a partner at "a professional management corporation," made a variety of claims about Alldred.
The partner "prayed for Alldred's immediate release," and told the judge that between 1995 and 2003, Alldred had been everything from project manager to vice president at the
No evidence of the company's existence could be found by the
On a
He added that he'd received a degree in molecular biology from the University of
"If he tells you the sky is blue, you better go check," Reilly said. "He said he worked for a car dealership when we first met him. He was always driving all these fancy cars. Then he admitted that he rented them."
Between 1995 and the time he was in jail, "the only thing I can remember him working for was a tow truck company, and that was maybe six months, if that."
In
"I'll never see the money -- it's just a joke," the friend said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "I've known this guy since we were kids. We were very close. He had a relationship with my kids."
Now, she said, she's left wondering: "When did I become a target?"
THEFT BY SWINDLE
Much of Alldred's online persona is gone. The website for a company he told girlfriends he founded -- Johnson, Allred & Andrews -- has been taken down. His LinkedIn profile: missing. His Facebook page, with pictures of a house and dogs: absent.
In addition to swindling
Employees at the
"He'd walk in wearing scrubs," a clerk said, adding that Alldred told one assistant manager with a sore arm that he had tendinitis.
He was arrested in June, after trying to check into a
After Alldred pleaded guilty of a count of theft by swindle in
And, he added, he hoped to get into a treatment facility for his heart condition.
He is slated to be sentenced by
___
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