Heritage Baptist Church
Complaint 139364 Details

Our church received a call from Dep. O.J. Robinson of Morgonton Sheriff's Department in Roseville, West Virginia. An African-American couple who supposedly had visited our church had been towed after being stranded on I-77 and were short $64 on a $744 bill. The deputy was trying to protect the couple and their two, young daughters from a crowd of people who were using the n-word. The couple, named David and Amanda Lawrence, were worried and seemed to be inciting more tension by standing up to the crowd. The couple said they visited the church, although we didn't remember them. David Lawrence remarked that I had introduced to them a family in the church and he then used their last name. (I didn't realize at the time that our administrative assistant had used that name with the deputy when he asked if anyone in our church was travelling in West Virginia.) Thinking we needed to get the family out of the situation, we sent money for the repair and $50 for gas via Western Union to the repair show's son, who supposedly had quick access to Western Union. The son's name was supposedly Gary Lewis, 207 West Valley Road, Edenton, N.C. The number of the supposed sheriff's office: 304-679-9050. The whole episode began with the deputy making us think someone from our church had been killed in a traffic accident in West Virigina. ... We've faced folks trying to scam us before, but this one got through.