Inside the Police Reports: Woman Reports Scam Started on Online Dating Site

Each week, Lilburn Patch will take a deeper look into recent crime reports in Lilburn, this week reported by Lilburn Police Department.

-Trading punches for bicycles: On the 600 block of Indian Trail Road, two brothers reported their bikes stolen. Two males, ranging from the ages 12 to 15 years of age, began following them as they were riding to a Lilburn shopping center from the library. The brothers parked their bikes outside a store on Indian Trail with their friend who was with them, and went inside. When the brothers returned, one of the suspects punched one of the brothers in the head, and the suspects rode off with the bikes. 

-Scamming older woman: On Feb. 6, a 63-year-old woman claimed to have been scammed by someone she met through the online dating website SeniorPeopleMeet.com. In May 2009, she made contact on the website with an Alpharetta man by the name of Harrison Pitt.

He left for Ghana shortly after they met online, and their relationship blossomed even to the point of marriage talk. Even though they had never met in person, she wired him more than $38,000 along with car parts, a computer and other items over the course of his stay in Africa.

In the summer of 2010, she received a check for $18,000 from a Canadian company that was supposedly on Pitt's behalf to pay her back, but the check turned out to be fraudulent. He convinced her that he had been defrauded, too, and they continued their relationship until recently.

On Feb. 5, he told her that he was ending their relationship because she wanted to adopt a child and, according to the police report, "he didn't feel that she could love him and the child at the same time."

Police checked information on a Harrison Pitt in Alpharetta, but nothing has come up so far. The home address that he supplied the woman turned out to be the same address as the Alpharetta City Hall.

-Watches, clothing and electronics: A man reported in the early hours of Feb. 12 that his house had been burglarized at the 1400 block of Stoneview Trail. The last he was at the house was Feb. 10, and when he arrived the following evening, he noticed the glass on his porch door was broken and several items were missing, including a 32-inch Westinghouse flat-screen TV, two Bentley watches, clothing, a modem and 10-inch speakers with a speaker box. Police took latent prints from the dresser and the television stand, where a shoe print was found.