Good Samaritan Julie Baker fed and clothed a beggar who repaid her kindness by stealing her bank card from her home in Wright Close, Gillingham
08:00, 14 October 2014
updated: 08:10, 14 October 2014
A disabled woman’s faith in mankind has been destroyed after she fed and clothed a beggar who repaid her kindness by stealing £200.
The man, who introduced himself as Curtis, was welcomed into Julie Baker’s home, but stole a bank card from her purse and later withdrew all the money she had from an ATM machine.
Mrs Baker, 50, who is partially deaf and blind, was taken shopping by her son Jason Hook last Tuesday at the Tesco Extra in Courteney Road, Gillingham, where she was approached by a man soaked through to the skin, crying and begging for help.
Mr Hook, 27, said: “He played on her heartstrings and the tears were running down his face. He said he was cold and hungry.
"I agreed to bring him back to our home and gave him some of my clothes while we cleaned and dried his, let him have a wash and even shared a Chinese meal with him.”
But while Mr Hook, of Wright Close, Gillingham, was in the toilet, the man scarpered. It wasn’t until the next morning that Mrs Baker, who has suffered four mini strokes, realised her card was missing.
"It’s completely destroyed her faith in human nature. She was brought up to do good, and it’s made a mockery of every kind turn she did him." - Jason Hook
Mr Hook, a full-time carer for his mum, rang the police and the bank’s fraud investigations team, who discovered the money had been taken out at the Co-op in Beechings Way, Gillingham.
He added: “I don’t know if he found my mum’s pin somewhere, or was stalking her before this but it was obviously all planned.
“The whole thing has made her a nervous wreck, crying all the time. It’s completely destroyed her faith in human nature.
She was brought up to do good, and it’s made a mockery of every kind turn she did him.
“We want people to be aware, he’s obviously a con man and could do this to other vulnerable people.”
Mr Hook described the man as white, just under 6ft, medium build with a distinguishing tattoo on his chest believed to say ‘wanderer’. He has blue eyes, is in his early 20s and has a shaved head. Police are investigating.
