This weekend, two women in Modesto, California begged drivers to donate money to pay for their baby’s funeral. Thankfully, there is no dead baby, but the real story is still awful.
The police say that on Saturday, Chasity Doll and Tiffany Lyon were spotted darting into the road at a busy intersection to ask drivers for money. KTXL reports that they held up a sign featuring a six-month-old boy named Justin Michael Farrell, who they said died of a heart condition while they were in town on vacation.
They had managed to rack up nearly $700 in donations before a police officer spotted them and told them to stay on the sidewalk. Understandably, he didn’t want to pester the women with questions about their loss, and planned to let them off with just a verbal warning. However, as he was driving away he saw them run into the road eight to 10 more times. He returned and started asking questions about the baby, but the women couldn’t explain how or where he passed away. He called the county coroner and was told no one named Justin Michael Farrell had ever died there. The image of “Justin” was just a photo of someone else’s baby that the women had pulled off the internet.
Police spokeman Sgt. Craig Gundlach says, “They have tugged on the heartstrings of people and taken advantage of them and that’s really what is difficult to understand.” Doll and Lyon were arrested and charged with fraud and conspiracy. Authorities believe they did the same thing on Friday at another Modesto intersection, and they may have even taken their scam on tour to Visalia, CA. We’re guessing some terrible circumstances drove the women to try this, but let’s agree not to drag dead babies into this sort of chicanery, even if they’re fake.