Citizens Arrest Panhandler Accused of Faking Injury

By Kirsten McIntyre, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- While driving around the metro, have you ever wondered if the panhandlers on the corner really need your help or if they're just preying on your emotions? Police believe at least one of them is faking.

Driving around the metro, NEWS 9 spotted a panhandler at most major intersections, but one of their stories doesn't add up.

As the owner of a landscaping company, Blake Hartpence works a lot in northwest Oklahoma City.

"I travel up Penn., May, Memorial almost every day of the week," Hartpence said.

He travels there enough that he and his employee began to notice something wasn't quite right.

"We saw him with two casts one day, a crutch one day. The next day he only has one cast. He snagged up money and ran across the street," said Mackenzie Crawford, who witnessed the panhandler.

"I just said 'There's one guy who fakes it,'" Hartpence said.

The landscapers are referring to 50-year-old Todd Kerley. An Oklahoma City police officer had also been watching him.

"Basically this individual, on numerous occasions, has been seen in this area, northwest Oklahoma City, holding different signs each time with a different injury," said Oklahoma City Police Sgt. Jennifer Wardlow.

Last week at the intersection of May Avenue and Memorial Road, the officer approached Kerley. According to the police report, he talked to Kerley about "being out there scamming people out of their money and about his pretending to be hurt."

That's when the landscapers got involved. They stopped and Hartpence made a citizen's arrest. The charge: a pedestrian stopping vehicles.

"He's not slow. He's just taking money from people who will give it to him," Hartpence said.

NEWS 9 went to Kerley's home to talk to him and his wife. She was also arrested for littering when she allegedly threw a cigarette on the ground. Neither was home, but on the phone both denied the allegations.

"Some people are down and out, can't get a job, don't have a place to live. This guy had a house, had a car, he had everything right. He was basically taking advantage of us," Crawford said.

Todd Kerley's wife said her husband is not faking his injury, in fact, there's a worker's comp case pending.

It is a person's first amendment right to panhandle. However, panhandlers are not to approach people in their vehicles and cannot be in the road.