Police say city man sold phony ads to get money from small businesses Alleged con man busted
WOONSOCKET – Police have arrested an alleged con man they say swindled two local businesses out of hundreds of dollars by posing as an advertising representative for college and community newspapers.
Robert E. McKinnon, 44, of 191 High St., is charged with two counts of obtaining money under false pretenses and one count of simple assault. Police said they charged him with the latter offense because McKinnon allegedly got into a physical altercation with a store owner who accused him of running a scam.
McKinnon was arrested at home without incident on Thursday afternoon on warrants stemming from incidents involving Ye Olde English Fish and Chips and Boost Mobile.
On Nov. 9, police said McKinnon convinced the proprietors of the fish house that he was as an advertising representative for the campus newspapers at Bryant University in Smithfield and Dean Junior College in Franklin. They wrote him a check for $324 to purchase advertisements for the business in the two publications.
The operators of Ye Olde became suspicious when the advertisements they purchased failed to materialize in the campus publications. They called the police a month later and filed a complaint.
On Aug. 16, police said McKinnon went into Boost Mobile on Main Street posing as an advertising representative for Beacon Communications, a company that owns the Warwick Beacon, the Cranston Herald and the Johnston SunRise newspapers.
Police said the owner of the Boost Mobile store gave McKinnnon a $50 deposit to purchase newspaper advertisements with the Beacon group. McKinnon told the owner he would return the following day to pick up the balance of $200.
When McKinnon failed to show up, the owner suspected he’d been duped and tried to turn the tables on him. He sent McKinnon a text message to inform him that the $200 he wanted for the ads was ready to be picked up, and McKinnon showed up at the store 30 minutes later.
At that time, the Boost proprietor demanded McKinnon give him his money back, telling him he knew “it was a scam.” With customers in the store, McKinnon tried to leave, but the owner attempted to prevent him from doing so.
That’s when McKinnon allegedly “pulled a pen from his pocket holding it in a manner to stab him,” according to a police report. The owner moved toward McKinnon and “at that time was pushed by the male subject who fled towards the Domino’s Pizza and up stairs that lead to High Street.”
Police said this wasn’t the first time McKinnon had pretended to be an advertising representative for the Beacon media group.
“McKinnon has developed an MO of impersonating a sales rep for Beacon Media as he has done this in the past within the jurisdiction of Smithfield,” Detective Thomas J. Gormley’s report says.