COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. — Collier County Sheriff’s Office detectives said William Ringer, 36, called an elderly victim pretending to be her grandson who needed emergency funds.
According to the arrest report, the victim, who lives in Michigan, told detectives that she received a call on April 29 from a man who said he was her grandson. He told her he was in trouble and needed $6,000 to get out of a DUI situation.
A woman told detectives that the man talked fast and sounded like he could be her grandson. She told him she didn’t have $6,000.
He asked her how much she did have, and she told him. He advised her to go to a Walmart in Michigan and wire the money to William Alan Ringer at a specified Walmart in Collier County. When she questioned this, the man told her Ringer was helping him out. He also asked her not to tell his parents.
After conducting the transaction, the victim reached out to family members who contacted her actual grandson, who was not in any trouble.
Walmart was contacted to stop the transaction, but the money had already been collected.
Ringer was captured on store surveillance video collecting the money.
Deputies located Ringer at the intersection of Lakeview and Bayshore drives in East Naples. He is charged with exploitation of an elderly person less than $10,000, fraud and petty theft.
