ID theft victim of 35 years elated ’ at arrest A man who was the victim of a 35-yearlong identity theft said yesterday he ’s so happy about an arrest in the case he could kiss the special agent who handled it.
Tom Lesh, 66, of Coos Bay, said he ’s known since the 1970s that his brother ’s friend stole his identity, and he appealed to everyone from the IRS to the suspect ’s own mother for help to no avail. As the decades wore on, he said, he spent "thousands of hours" writing letters to credit card companies, banks, insurance companies and government agencies, trying to clear his name.
"At one point I thought about getting a hit man, but I worried that with my luck, they ’d get the wrong Tom Lesh," he joked.
Finally, this year, insurance fraud investigator Sandy Larson took up the case, when an insurance company had received claims for treatment a Tom Lesh received at a Seattle hospital, but the real Tom Lesh told the company it wasn ’t him.
Larson forwarded the matter to Matt Lavelle, a special agent with the Social Security Administration ’s Office of the Inspector General, who tracked down the suspect, a 58-year-old truck driver whose real name is Clark Mower. and arre~thd him. AP
Wairarapa Times Age
