San Diego County sheriff’s deputies are on the lookout for two women spotted soliciting donations for a baby’s funeral. Deputies say the women may be the same pair caught scamming passersby with a similar story in Northern California earlier this summer.
A reporter with our media partner The North County Times captured an image of the two women asking for money at an intersection in San Marcos.
They held up a sign with a picture of a baby outside the Nordahl Market Place shopping center Wednesday.
The baby, the funeral is all a ploy to get people to hand over their money deputies said.
The two women are believed to be Tiffany Lyon and Chasity Doll.
They were arrested in Modesto in June for a similar scheme: standing on busy corners begging for money to pay for what authorities say is a phony funeral.
The image of the baby was grabbed off the Internet according to officials.
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Dario Garcia saw the women in Escondido this week but something about the sign made him suspicious.
"I was going to give her money but I looked at the date and it said for funeral cost,” Garcia said.
"That's wrong, that's wrong because I have five daughters myself and I couldn't imagine doing that,” he said.
Other parents also can't believe someone would go as a far as making up a story about a dead child to line their pockets.
"I think it's sad that people would play on that emotion, you know, bring a child into it,” said Julie Cataline. “It's horrible because you would feel bad if you turned someone down.”
Russ Cook admitted the ploy would likely work on him.
“I'd probably be a sucker too and give them my money because how could you not have feelings for something like that,” he asked.
The women successfully made $700 in just one hour when they approached people in Modesto police said.
We don't know how much money they may have gotten standing at the intersections here but deputies say they will be looking out for the two women.
