Park Forest man ripped off by woman he met at strip club

avatar for samsung1
samsung1
Ohio
While giving money to the poor is a noble endeavor, paying the delinquent bills of some woman you met at a strip club is a bad idea.

Unfortunately for one 50-year-old Park Forest man, he did just that.

Rachel Klootwyk, 38, of Peotone, was charged with felony financial identity theft July 1 after racking up $3,700 in unauthorized charges on the man's bank account between February and July 1, police said.

According to police, the man met Klootwyk met in January at a Chicago Heights strip club he regularly visited, Jimmy's Restaurant, 410 W 14th St.

Klootwyk told the man, who lives in the 400 block of Winnemac Street, that she had suffered an illness that left her with unpaid credit card and utility bills, police said. In turn, he offered to cut her debts and pay some of her bills.

Near the end of February, he began to write checks for her bills, police said. Through a subsequent e-mail confirmation, she obtained his bank account information and used it without his permission.

She arranged his account to pay her bills on a monthly basis, police said. On June 29, he received a statement from his bank listing numerous unauthorized withdrawals from his account. Fearing a con, he turned to the police.

"These are tough economic times for everyone, including bad guys," Park Forest Police Chief Tom Fleming said.

"Sometimes, you get what you expect. Generally, you meet better people at church than you do at a strip club."

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/16591…

12 comments

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avatar for SuperDude
SuperDude
15 years ago
He fell for the oldest scam in stripclub history.
avatar for txtittyfan
txtittyfan
15 years ago
Probably not the "extras" he was hoping for.
avatar for Dougster
Dougster
15 years ago
Stupid thieving whore!
avatar for how
how
15 years ago
If you're gonna help someone (beggar on the corner; stripper, etc.), use cash only...
avatar for steve229
steve229
15 years ago
Couple thoughts:

Checked out the reviews on TUSCL for "Jimmy's" and it actually sounds like a pretty good neighborhood club.

38 is a little long in the tooth for strippers, isn't it? Sounds like a regular and his favorite relationship gone wrong.
avatar for ohiochop
ohiochop
15 years ago
Yep, its fits the profile. Guy having some kind of mid-life reset, likley not happy at home, she's older, "mature" which gives perceived credibility. She gets him into a romantic relationship, so he helps, thinks he will be the facilitator to transition her out of the business and they will live happily ever after. Right: no good deed goes unpunished. Am not very religious but this prayer line comes to mind: ... all evil spirits who wander through the world seeking the ruin of souls. He is ruined now in a lot of ways. Least of which is the money. A whore such as this is one of these evil spirits as well as those in the business like her. I like to think they are an exception in the stripper population.
avatar for Dougster
Dougster
15 years ago
ohiochop: Good points, but I think strippers who do have some sense of morals are the exception, not the other way around.

Perhaps, only a minority would act as this stripper did in the situation, but I think, rather not doing it because they think stealing is unethical, it is more from just being too slackful to put in all the effort to rip off the guy, or fear that he might turn out to be a psycho who would hunt them down as a consequence.

The whole culture actually condones behavior such as this. Management could care less if such women were working for them rather than move to remove them as any other profession would do its shady worker. Other strippers, and even the male apologist/white knight/ass kissers we see on these board would be more likely to say "well if the guy was dumb enough to believe her he deserves what he gets" rather acknowledge her for what she was: namely a stupid thieving whore.
avatar for casualguy
casualguy
15 years ago
I have a better opinion of many dancers and their morals. There are definitely a few bad apples out there but I've met several dancers who seemed to have moral values. They don't really stand out as well as the dancers who told you a lie and attempted to or did manage to rip you off. It's like going into a crowd and being careful because you heard there might be pick pockets. You may be worried about that small percentage of bad apples even though you are in a large crowd. Of course some areas in some towns may have alot of bad apples so your experience may vary. It's not just dancers that try to be con artists. Recently bank employees did an excellent job selling mortgages to wall street racking up the profits while hiring people who lied on paper by putting down vastly overinflated estimated income and putting people into homes they should not have had if valid proof of income had been done. They conned us all on that and banks were left to their own devices to regulate their own practices. That is worse than any dancer in my opinion. However if you're a con artist, they did a really good job at conning people out of money.
avatar for Dougster
Dougster
15 years ago
Yep, lots of sleazoids in banking/finance as well. In general, there has been a long decline in the morality of the nation. A big factor contributing to the depression we are entering, and one that will need to be corrected before we fully recover.
avatar for chandler
chandler
15 years ago
She only got $3,700? He's lucky. Practically every day, a stripper somewhere takes that much from some sucker. You usually don't hear about it unless they take him for 10 times that. This guy just happened to press charges.
avatar for txtittyfan
txtittyfan
15 years ago
The story really isn't clear on how she obtained his online banking info.
avatar for Player11
Player11
15 years ago
I don't let dancer drama bother me. I don't pay for what I am not getting. Hustlers have all kinda tricks to emotionally manipulate you into giving them money for nothing. Don't do it. Just walk away. There are plenty of other girls in the club who will give you something for your money.
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