TRUMBULL COUNTY Police: Man duped Amish

Hubbard Township police have alerted police in a three-state area about the scheme.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
HUBBARD -- Two Amish families have been duped out of nearly $31,000 after buying bogus logging rights agreements from a Kinsman man, a police investigator says.
"Just when you think you've seen it all, it gets lower," said Hubbard Township police Detective Mike Begeot.
Begeot, who is investigating the flimflam with the Trumbull County Sheriff's Department, has obtained an arrest warrant charging Timothy Grimes, 34, with three felonies -- two counts of theft and one count of forgery.
Begeot said he has sent messages through the county 911 center to law enforcement agencies in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, alerting them of the scheme and asking for assistance in finding Grimes.
What Grimes did, the detective alleges, is sell two Amish families in Middlefield, a Geauga County community, fraudulent agreements giving them the rights to log on properties on Mount Everett and Fox North roads.
Agreements
The preprinted agreements contain a description of the properties and their owners' names. They designate Grimes as having the logging rights.
Begeot said Grimes is alleged to have sold the rights on the properties for $17,500 and $13,000. The families paid by check, Begeot explained, and Grimes cashed them immediately.
The detective said one of the families became suspicious when Midwest Steel & amp; Alloy Co. of Cleveland checked on its Mount Everett property.
Begeot explained that the Midwest representative approached the Amish who were logging. The group told Midwest they had the logging rights, but Midwest told them they didn't.
That family knew the other Middlefield family, and told its members of the fraud.
In the other scam, Begeot said, the agreement identified the Fox North property owner as a woman.
But the woman had died nine years ago, leaving the land to her heirs.
What's next
The Amish "are willing to work out anything they can with the property owners," Begeot said, noting they have stopped logging on both properties.
"We have no interest in selling any logging rights to anybody," a Midwest spokesman said.
Begeot said the families will most likely lose more money, having to pay for the timber they have hauled away and for damage their machinery has caused.
The Midwest spokesman said the families should have contacted the property owners to assure the agreements were legitimate.
He pointed out that Midwest has a sign with its telephone number on its acreage.
yovich@vindy.com