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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police arrested an Iowa woman for allegedly faking a pregnancy to bilk a couple out of some money, and investigators said Monday that it's not the first time she has carried out such a scam.
Tracy Leann Bess, of Ankeny, was charged Friday with fourth-degree theft.
According to Ankeny police, Bess met a Dewitt couple through Life Long Adoptions, a California-based agency that connects birth mothers with potential parents. Bess, 29, wasn't pregnant, but she used information from a prior pregnancy, including hospital photos and a sonogram, to con the couple out of $200, saying she needed it for maternity clothes. In exchange, she promised to prioritize them as her baby's adoptive parents.
"They had their suspicions as to whether or not she was actually pregnant, and that's what prompted us to look into it," Chief Gary Mikulec told The Associated Press.
Representatives with Life Long Adoptions didn't immediately return a call seeking comment Monday.
Mikulec said Bess previously conducted a series of similar scams in which she established 19 different aliases on several adoption websites to connect with prospective parents in multiple states, including Nebraska, Hawaii and Kansas. In July 2011, Bess pleaded guilty to perjury and filing a false sexual assault report under a name she purportedly used to lure prospective parents to Iowa in an attempt to close an adoption. A judge suspended a five-year jail term and gave her two years of probation, according to online court records.
Bess violated the conditions of her probation in September 2011, prompting a judge to send her to prison for a year. Iowa Department of Corrections records indicate that her parole ended in February 2014, discharging her sentence.
A Utah couple later reported an adoption scam involving Bess in July 2014, but Mikulec said there were no applicable laws to charge her at that time. In total, he said Bess has been part of 25 such instances over four years, but that it's impossible to pinpoint exactly how many cases exist because of her various usernames.
"The tragedy is that there really is no specific crime for what she does," Mikulec said, noting that typically charges can only be brought against Bess when she requests money. Otherwise, he said her actions are little more than "preying on someone's emotions."
Bess could not be reached to comment on the charge, and court records do not yet list an attorney.
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