Something Was Wrong - S22 Ep6: A Weak Bridge Collapses

Episode Date: November 20, 2024

*Content Warning: fraud, scams, disability abuse, false reporting, harassment, driving under the influence, upsetting themes, false personation, psychological violence, emotional abuse, sexual assault, murder for hire, financial abuse. Resources:Free + Confidential Resources + Safety Tips: somethingwaswrong.com/resources   Sources:MyCase Indiana: https://public.courts.in.gov/Elwood woman faces multiple felonies in connection with ongoing rental scheme, by Logan Gay, WTHR.com staff, WTHR News: https://www.wthr.com/article/news/crime/elwood-woman-arrested-for-ongoing-rental-scheme-megan-stoner-fishers-indiana/531-2d3b11fa-5c70-4f05-8ea4-0be0c37cf852 Fishers woman charged in rental fraud; 3 scammed in signing lease for same Home by: Izzy Karpinski, Fox59: https://fox59.com/news/indycrime/fishers-woman-charged-in-rental-fraud-3-scammed-in-signing-lease-for-same-home/ Hamilton County Inmate Records - Stoner, Megan Elizabeth: https://secure2.hamiltoncounty.in.gov/inmates2/Jail/Inmate/Detail/-1282383 Protect the community from ongoing criminal activity by revoking the bond of Megan Stoner, Change.Org Petition: https://www.change.org/p/protect-the-community-from-ongoing-criminal-activity-by-revoking-the-bond-of-megan-stoner Megan Stoner Chronicles, X @ChroniclesMegan: https://x.com/ChroniclesMegan Chloe Anagnos on X: @ChloeAnagnos https://x.com/ChloeAnagnos/status/1651260809362784261 Don't Waste This F*cking Podcast: The Story of Megan Stoner, by Amanda Peterson, Excelsior Studios: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dont-waste-this-f-cking-podcast-the-story-of-megan-stoner/id1757463535 Noblesville Chatter Community Based Discussion Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1995427104120331/ Theme Song & Artwork: Thank you to NeonHoney and GIBBANEZ for covering our theme song, Glad Rags’s original song U Think U this season. NeonHoney’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/neonhoneymusic/ NeonHoney’s Website: https://neonhoneymusic.comGibbanez IG: https://www.instagram.com/@gibbanezmusic/ Gibbanez Linktree: https://linktr.ee/gibbanezmusicGlad Rags: https://www.gladragsmusic.com/ The S22 cover art is by the Amazing Sara StewartFollow Something Was Wrong: Website: somethingwaswrong.com  IG: instagram.com/somethingwaswrongpodcast TikTok: tiktok.com/@somethingwaswrongpodcast  Follow Tiffany Reese: Website: tiffanyreese.me  IG: instagram.com/lookieboo 

This podcast is intended for mature audiences and discusses topics that may be upsetting. For a full content warning, sources and resources, please visit the episode notes. Opinions shared by the guests of the show are their own, and do not necessarily represent the views of myself, broken cycle media, or wondering. The podcast in any linked materials should not be misconstrued as a substitution for legal or medical advice. Megan Stoner's responses to these allegations are addressed within this season.

I'm Tiffany Reese, and this is, something was wrong. In the second half of episode five, we met Tom. Tom met Stoner through a disability advocacy group that he founded. I founded a club in 2019.

It was called the Neurodiversity Coalition. It was to help people with autism, Asper's disorder, I have PDD, NOS, OCD, invisible disabilities, and beyond. They became closer friends when Tom moved to Indiana during the COVID-19 pandemic through Teach for America. And, you know, we went to hockey games together. We would grab meals together. We were purely platonic, by the way. Their friendship drifted apart a bit when Tom moved again, and he didn't keep up with her as much online or otherwise. She would message me from time to time texts soliciting money for teaching

or for walking in a suicide prevention walk. But after Stoner had been arrested and released on bond for both the OWI and the rental scams, Stoner resurfaced in Tom's life and began spinning her lies and manipulation all over again trying to get money out of Tom for her Teslas and Yonis. To begin, to begin, clear, Tom had no idea at this point that Megan had gone to jail twice already. He had no idea

she was a scam artist, and Stoner had never given him personally any reason to doubt her credibility. Then, in May of 2023, Stoner began reaching out to Tom asking for money. May the 6th, I got a number of random texts throughout the day saying, I'm in a crisis, I need help, it's not mental health. I said, oh, what's up? She says, oh, I'm at a, oh, I'm at a, I'm at a low point in my life. I need money for bail. Yeah, I wish I was lying. So me being very surprised,

considering this is a former government employee and now whom I presume to be a teacher, I say, okay, explain what is going on. She says they're charges from three years ago, 2021. Tom was hesitant to loan stoner any money to begin with because, as he had shared with us, he's been taken advantage of in the past by friends when it comes to money. But being the kind and empathetic person Tom is,

he eventually agreed to help Stoner out by trying to pay a bail bondsman on her behalf. Stoner and later someone claiming to be Stoner's mom, Gail, kept claiming the card wouldn't go through, and eventually Tom learned that his card kept getting canceled due to strange charges. It's one in the morning when I took the picture initially on June 16. of the card and sent it. Later that afternoon, Megan's mom says, oh, sorry, it's not working right now.

We tried again around six, and it still didn't work. So it's nine now on the same Friday, June 16th. So it's already happened three times in the span of two days. It hasn't worked. So on the 17th of June, I say, all right, I'll call the bank and figure it out. And as it turns out, because,

of strange charges starting to pour in around that time. I said I had to get a new card. Now, up to this point, I'm just assuming, oh, it's just a classic case of identity theft. It must have happened at the gas station or something. Tom trusted Stoner and he wanted to be a good friend to her. He shared personal card info with her, which he now regrets. But when you live your life with integrity,

you assume others do as well, especially those you call friends. you've given her $1,000 via Venmo, and she was trying to get you to run this card or different cards over and over again to allegedly pay this bail bondsman on top of the other money, right? That's right. When Megan has created this fake alibi for herself that she's in some sort of hospital. Yeah. So all of this is going down all through June. I would say there were between 10 or 20 charges that my bank reversed in that month alone. and I was able to get that money back.

Thank goodness for that. And on June 29th, with a cash app, it is charged for $10 to a Meg Stoner. Then there's another cash app charge, and this name appears frequently, Brooklyn. I never figured out who Brooklyn was. I never figured out who Penny was. I never figured out where the Amazon account was coming from the Amazon bill.

I also never figured out who Jasmine was. There are several personalities or accounts that I'm presuming Megan has opened up. Now, at the time, I'm not thinking this. I'm just assuming, oh, these are friends who are helping to try to pay her bond. So I get back from Kansas City. This is mid to late June about. The next time that I hear from her, it was on the 4th of July, no less. On Independence Day, like the movie.

So, you know, perfect tie-in to the plot line, right? It's 542 in the morning. Now, I'm up early that day because, like any patriotic American or person who loves the 4th of July, I tend to wake up on the 4th of July so that I can see the band setting up, see if there are any parades that are going on in the morning. I get a message about 12 minutes after I wake up. It's 542. She says, hey, it's Megan.

I know we still owe you 1,000. I just got out of the hospital and I'm homeless now. If I could borrow another thousand to get back on my feet, I can pay back 2,000 for that when I get my student aid in a few weeks. That's the first time she even mentioned student aid. Now, I'm thinking, I knew she was a student at Ball State, and I'm wondering, student aid, don't you pay for classes with that? How do you still have student aid left over? It wasn't until I was informed by Justin and Alyssa and Mike that she had been planning to pursue a degree at Liberty University. she had that student aid.

I'm assuming she still had student aid left over from her graduate program at Ball State. So I say, oh, perfect. I'm so sorry, Megan, this is all happening to you. So throughout the day, I send her my Venmo, and she says, oh, do you have your new card

so I can refund it? And so if you can spot me 2K, I can pay you back 4K this weekend, 4,000. Is there any way you can help me? I'm without a car. I'm homeless. Can you help me? Can you please send it? It's really urgent. You can make easy cashier, please help me. I can show up in person if you loan me the 2K. I can send you the notarized agreement. The moving company took my car. At this point, I stopped responding on July 4th.

I just gave her my Venmo so she could request it. It's the next day at this point, the next evening, July 5th, and she is saying, oh, can you spot me 2000? I can give you $4,000 back this weekend. I'm homeless and I'm without the car. And this is the first time where she proposes a notarized agreement. That was her idea, not mine. I said, issue is I'm kind of low at the moment on funds. That's why I need the payback. All right, I've been waiting nearly a month at this point, and I stopped charging you interest, and I'm still agreeing to have you pay a lesser amount. She says, oh, I understand, and I know I haven't been around, but I can send you a notarized agreement. I'm literally homeless and without a car. Can you help me? And I said, listen, I'm running low, and she again

repeats, I will send you a notarized agreement. And she says, can you do a thousand or 1,500? Please, it's urgent. I can show you my eviction order. So she's really harping on this. And I even say, well, what about asking other people? Why me? I'm assuming she's got Curtis. She's got Harry. Why aren't you asking them? Those are your friends. She says, apparently, nobody has it either. I've tried asking around. And because you actually care about me, You've taken a chance on me. I'm not going to jail or the hospital. I just need my car back.

Please, I can't even go to work without my job. What does that even mean? I'm thinking, problem is, how can I possibly trust you at this point? You've been gone damn near two months now. And she says, I hear you. That's why I'm offering a notarized agreement. And I say, well, I do care, but seriously, I could take this to court at this point. because you have not paid.

She says, listen, I can write up an agreement for us to sign. I know, and I appreciate that you haven't taken it to court, but without my car, I can't do anything. So then I agree to it, and I say, all right, if you get an agreement notarized, I want proof, genuine proof that you are going to pay me. And that means getting a signed contract. She's up the total amount that she owes me to $8,000. It went from 4,000 to 8,000 in three days at this point. I say, okay, deal.

She says, oh, I'm writing the agreement if you're willing to try. Just hang tight with me. So she puts it in her notes. I agree to pay $8,000 back. I agreed to about $2,500. And I'm like, wait, wait, what? We did not agree to that. We agreed originally to 2000.

What's all this about? You know, you kind of bumped it up a bit. And she said, if you can do it, I will increase my paycheck to $10,000. So now, all right, we're already up to double digits in the thousands. I'm thinking, well, it's her hole and she's going to have to dig her way out of it. And I say, make the official due date this weekend, this Saturday, or I'm going to file a court motion. And I meant it because $10,000 is the limit. in Indiana to file for small claims court.

So if I were to go beyond that, and which she eventually did, I'd have to actually sue her. We might have to have a trial if she goes over 10,000. I'm thinking, listen, I need to know that you can pay it or else. I can't lend it. Official due date is Sunday. End of story. Or we go to court.

I mean it. And she says, I get it. I said, all right, let's see the agreement. and she's kind of dawdling at this point. She says, I'm going to get it notarized. I'll be in touch around date. Sure enough, she writes out the agreement. She prints it out from her notes page.

She signs this typewritten note, her name twice, and gets a notary seal of approval stamped right in the center from an official notary. So I'm thinking at this point, this is a legal contract. She's saying, all right, I need my car. back tonight. I had to sign it twice once in front of her. Do you want anything else in the agreement? I said, it's fine. I asked for a Venmo. The transaction is declined. And I say, I'm at the end of my ropes with this thing. She says, oh, please, don't quit on me. I said, I don't have a debit card.

I have to go. She proposes that I just give her my bank information. I'm like, absolutely not. I'm not about to do that. She says, oh, I'll pay through Quickbook. I paid money to get that notarized. Please let me rebuild trust. And I'm like, okay, and she's like, I'm shaking. Please help me. Jeez, I don't want her to collapse or something. So, foolish me. I give it up. I give them both up. By the way, I'm in a law fellowship at this point, and we're doing a legal simulation. So while this class is going on, she continues to text. And I know I could have put the phone off to the side, but you're so locked in and you're worried about your friend and you're not thinking rationally. So I just hand it over and I say delete those when you're done with it,

or I swear, I will not hesitate to press charges if fraud is detected. Well, obviously we know where that fraud started before, but at this point, I'm just thinking it must have been somebody stole something at the gas station. And I said, listen, I'm just being strict with you because my money is not something to be trifled with, okay? And she's like, yes, sir. So I'm like, okay, I'm just, I'm trying to be fair here, but it's really upsetting to me that you're in trouble right now. And she says, look, I'm sorry for all the pain I've caused. Do you think you could do Zell? I said, sorry, I can't do that because that's how I got fraud on my card in June. I told her this right after she said, I'm uncomfortable with this account and routing number thing.

I'll take you out for an adult beverage when all this is over. Okay, first and foremost, who calls it an adult beverage, right? She's like, okay, can you log in and maybe do a transfer to another person's account? And I said, no, not other people's. Either go with the numbers or the deal is off. I'm not dealing with more people again. This is her responsibility. I don't want to bother her friends anymore because, for all I know, they could already be angry at her.

And I tell her, my info is already risking compromise. and this has gone far enough. She says, Chase isn't letting the payment go through. Could you see if you can do a wire? So I finally acquiesce and I say, yeah, I can do Zell. Where do you want me to send it to? She sends me a number that's 801. I look up the number.

I trace it and it's a guy named Stephen. First mention of Stephen. And I say, who the hell is Stephen? All right? Why are you bringing all these people in? She said, they have my car. They're a moving. company. I'm thinking Stephen is with the moving company at this point. I say, there's a limit. I have to go now.

And she says, I can't be stranded. Please help. I say, look, 500. And she says, can you do that for tonight, please? I say, ridiculous. And she says, if you can send something tonight, I'm going to see if they would let me drive down tomorrow to get the rest. Can you get cash out or do you have paper checks? I said, no, I don't have paper checks. I'm not going to risk the compromising of my information. At this point, it's late, the Chase office is closed, and I'm still in class, so I say, you've literally made me lose track of my law class, all right, this is important to my professional development, and you're really screwing me over right here. I don't have time for this. I should have put my phone off to the side. That's my fault. I'm nervous for my friend here. You get worried,

because she says, leaving me to sleep outside is not cool. Please, if I pay an extra two grand, can you ask Chase if they'll do a wire over the phone? I don't think the other person gets your details. You'd get theirs. There's referring to Stephen. And she then bumps it up. We're now at 13 grand. An extra three grand, she says.

So we're at $13,000. Alarm bells are starting to go off, but I'm still thinking this is somebody who's in trouble. And I want her to get better so that we can work together on something. Stephen apparently gets a Chase account during all this. and he says, Megan says that I can go in when I have a moment and transfer the funds. Or in the morning, can you go to Chase, take the cash out, and deposit in his account of Chase. Around this point, I changed my bank account because of all the charges.

I'm not thinking that this is Megan. I'm thinking that this is somebody who stole my identity while I was on the road trip in Kansas City. So I foolishly give up the new account information, the bank account info. And she says, you name the price to get it done and I'll pay you back. She then claims that she asked Chase for me. And she gives me Stephen's address. I transfer the 2,500. And I tell her, all right, get the money ready.

Now you got to carry it back. That was the last text for July 5th. On July 6th, I said, you have four days. She said, felt like you were sending me a death reminder. I said, ha, no, just hold up here under the bargain, please. Seriously, no more waiting. Now, are you off the street? She is off the street at this point. I said, why can't you go home? Where's family? And she says she got evicted. I said, what, your mom? She said, she went bankrupt and lives

with my aunt. My aunt dislikes me strongly. I'm not interested in caring about family drama. That's not my business. So I'm not even planning to ask her about that. all as I know is that her aunt hates her. I'm saying bankrupt, your mom was trying to pay me when you were in the hospital. She says, yeah, oh, she has more money now that she's moved in with my aunt, but it was just too much to maintain the house when my dad died. But yeah, my aunt avoids me like the plague. So I said, all right, well, how in the world are you going to get the money when you said you had none? Financial aid. I get a refund from school. So she convinces me, again, that she has money left over from Ball State.

And I said, wait, how did you not spend all that? She says she's still in grad school. When my loans hit, I get a refund because there's extra money. And I said, well, then why in the world do you need me? Did you lie to me? And she said, because I don't get that until Friday. It's July 6th. That Friday, she said she was going to get it.

And she said, did you want me to sleep on a sidewalk until then? And I said, look, stay sane and safe. just remember I'm not going anywhere. I waited this long and I can wait a little longer. At 9 on July 6th, I say, all right, money tomorrow? And she says, yeah, I'm driving. Deal's a deal. And you said you'd wire me extra?

Or was that out of desperation? And I don't hear from her again on July 6th. So you get a lot of empty space from Megan. July 7th, hardly any texts. I say, today, have you taken care of it? Please let me know. Here's my Venmo. And no response.

Around five, I say, I won't belabor the point anymore. I know things are rough, but I am dead serious about suing you in court. I don't want to have to do it, but you are not following up on your promises here. I was kind of bluffing when this happened, but I was just, I was so frustrated at that point because I hadn't gotten a dime. I said at midnight on July 8th, this is to inform me I've spoken to legal counsel to write out a demand letter. I just feel this is really impacting our friendship. I've held back. And this is two months at this point.

I'm fed up. July 9th, I'm saying, Hey, you still with me? This is just causing a lot of anxiety. And on that day, I looked up her name to see what was going on, to see if she was out of jail, the arrest records. Because you can do that in my case, Indiana.

And I see the article. Fisher's woman arrested in rentals. scam. And I see a Twitter, Megan Stoner's scam awareness. Now Megan's already told me that she's had haters and I knew she was deeply unpopular when she was in the state government office or as she told me she was. So I'm thinking at this point, oh my God, what? That's impossible. This is my first accusation. I said, you're a scammer. I looked you up. How could could you, Megan? So I'm automatically thinking, you lied to me. I'm calling the cops on you. I'm going to put you back in jail. I got introduced to the Megan Stoner Awareness Group on July 9th.

This was the Twitter. Yeah, this is on Twitter. The Facebook group was private. I didn't know anything about a Facebook group. So up to that point, I'm not thinking that this is a legitimate page, she would say when we're at hockey games, for example, oh yeah, there are a bunch of haters out there out to get me. Everybody's attacking me from my political points of view and all this. I'm at that point where nothing is making sense. I have no idea where all this is coming from. I just message them and said, hey, hands off her. Is she really a scammer? Prove it. I'm a friend of hers. Leave her alone. And I don't get a response from anybody until around. around August or so.

And that's nobody's fault. I mean, there were people who were impacted even before me. I don't blame anybody for what happened. No one felt worse about it than I did when I found out what had happened that she was stealing money. It's important to note that even though Tom had seen the Twitter page about Stoner's alleged crimes,

he was still questioning whether or not these people had legitimate claims. But having not been paid back by Stoner, Tom began to feel at minimum like he was being lied to. I messaged her on July 9th, and I said, you're a scammer. How could you? And she said, oh, my car was towed and I haven't had my phone. And I'm like, oh, okay, got it. But listen, do you have the money? And she said, did you call the cops? And I said, I know about the previous charges. So don't screw with me. I'm planning to tomorrow if the deadline passes tonight. She says, if you're going to threaten the cops and all this, then do whatever.

You need to pay me. It's a civil matter, not a criminal matter anyway. I'm low on funds and I trusted you. What is going on? You're in trouble again. Your car's getting towed. How did you sink so low so quickly? That's impossible. We had a deal, Megan, you promised. And she says, I can't speak on the phone right now. I'm not in a private area. And I said, please pay by tonight. Why would you make a promise that you couldn't keep? She says, I don't appreciate the threats. I'm planning on paying you. And I said, I thought you were better than that, though. I would. I literally got freaked because somebody said when I was discussing what happened that you had a history and somebody referring to the scam awareness page when I looked, somebody posted this. It's just that concerns me greatly. That's not normal. She said, look, it's an ongoing legal situation and my attorney said, I can't talk about it. And I said, I'm really upset because I didn't mean to threaten you at jail, but how can I keep you at your word when you keep getting in trouble? And there's a history of things. And I said, look, it'd be really helpful if you could follow up. Take the responsibility. Did you get the financial aid? Or are you just ordering DoorDash or something? Because my card keeps

getting charged. So this is the first time I started to suspect maybe Megan is charging stuff. Did she lie to me? She said, I've literally been in jail and you're accusing me of ordering DoorDash. I said, look, I'd like to know. A Fisher's address came up and seeing that you live in Fisher's, I had to ask. Can you at least keep to our agreement? And she said, no, I haven't lived in Fischer's for a while. She again repeats that she was evicted. And I said, I don't want to be a burden, but I have a history of trusting people and not hearing from you has really been frustrating for me. We had a deal. The debt was supposed to be paid tonight. What day should I check in to make sure? I send her the notarized agreement picture, and she says she's checking on her financial aid.

And I said, can you call the office? What can you do at this point? And I tell her, no more delays. it. It's time to get to business here and pay up. Two months I've waited. Pay the Piper. She said, I'm trying to follow along here. I said, I have your word on that. I don't want to make life harder than it has to be for you, but make it easy on yourself. Tell me what is going on. Stop going away for lengthy periods of time. I don't know how she found out that I messaged the scam awareness group, but she says, hey, you apparently started it on Twitter about me. My attorney wants me to see-all contact. You're way out of line for going on social media. You just put yourself in a lot of drama. I said, I didn't start the page, but I did comment because you are not listening to me.

What am I supposed to do when you've got an entire page of people who, for some reason, have a vendetta against you? I wanted to know what was going on. Do you expect me to just refer to you for everything? I mean, surely they must have their reason. She then plays the victim and says, oh, you've made me majorly upset. I'm in tears now. Great way to make me feel like a piece of, you know what, when I'm already at my lowest. I said, but you promised to pay me. I helped you through stuff. I was out of line for asking, but I'm really angry because you're breaking promises and stop ripping people off. And she says, because I didn't respond for a day, you went on social media about me. Jesus. I was trying to find your mom's info so I could call her and make sure you were

all right. But then I noticed the stories on Twitter. And she says, I was pulled over. Friday night. I had called her the previous night to say, you need to pay up. You really need to. All right? Enough's enough. And she breaks down in tears at some point. And then I hear the police sirens. And she says, oh, crap, I'm getting pulled over. And she hangs up the phone. I called her right back. And I said, what went on? Why did you get pulled over? Did you not have a hands free device or something. She continues to cry and says, oh, I promise I'll pay you back. And I'm like, okay, but you've just made a really bad situation much worse by getting pulled over. July 9th, she sends me this image of an email to her lawyer saying, my mom and I are very upset. I have a court

appearance for a suspended license in Elwood this month. I also went to jail last night because of the cop. Can you please handle this? According to the police, I can't drive until something is signed off by a judge. Apparently, the cops dragged her into court for getting pulled over, and then she applied for a hardship license. That makes no sense reading it now. And she said, oh, I sent this to my attorney yesterday. That'd be July 8th. I'm just going through a lot, and I'm not saying that excuses it, but I hope it explains it. And I said, so you literally can't pay anybody, and you asked for money. And she says, oh, I can. I'll pay you the minute my aid hits. I say, well, why take out a loan you can't pay. You didn't tell me you were out of money. The letter said you can't make money,

you know, the hardship license. And she said, oh, I'm still able to get my financial aid. I said, it never mentioned aid at all, so I have no idea how you're going to pay. She said, I'm highlighting I can't drive to my job in my letter to attorney. I said nothing about my aid. I need my attorney to take my request seriously. I can't live off my aid forever. I messaged you the moment I got my phone. It's just, I said, as a friend, I care about you, but when you've made a deal with a friend, you got to follow through. And she says, oh, I'm promising. And I said, I've been lied to about money before. And she said, oh, I'm so sorry. That sounds horrific. I'm taking this seriously. I get that. We all work hard for the money we have. I said, I literally reported the

darn page so they could take it down. So you're welcome. You know, I thought this was a haters page originally. I didn't know that they were trying to help people. And I said, it's upsetting when someone offers to help and the person who is helped continues to evade responsibility. No more silences, no more pleading. Just get it done, please. And she says, threatening me and tweeting about me are great ways to ensure all go quiet too. You can call the police. They're going to say it's civil. Didn't I have a week before you took it to court? I said, this is the demand letter. I pushed it back a week again. I said, I'm going to give you letter reminding you, then I'm going to take it to court. And again, by the way, this is just a bluff.

Like, I can't afford lawyers for crud. And I'm not going to go to my parents for that because they've supported me through a lot. I'm blessed to have them in my life. I don't want them to know about all this stuff. They've already got enough to deal with. I really wouldn't want to know that their son was foolish enough to get himself in a situation like this. They'd be too disappointed in me. normally I consider myself someone of common sense and I'm already upset that it led to this. So I'm thinking of my family at the time. I'm thinking of trying to get Megan to help me out. So I push it back and I said, I've had problems with finances in the past and people not paying me. So I'm quite paranoid after these two months. So yeah, I'm really angry about this.

So text me when you get the news. After this big stream, she goes absolutely silent again. The thing is with her, she has no concept of boundaries. You know, that's the thing that agitates me the most. When she starts texting, she sends a barrage. I mean, it's a stampede. If text messaging were an Olympic event, she would be a repeat champion every damn year. She exploits people's weaknesses in order to gain an advantage. You know, I think of it as she uses people's trust as a bridge to walk on.

Trust is easy to lose. It's only a matter of time before a weak bridge collapses. And in the case of her getting caught, certainly that bridge collapsed. Her most common excuses were that she was either in jail on the cusp of going to jail, was in Michigan babysitting a kid, was in the hospital for mental health treatment. A member of the Megan Stoner Awareness Group, Mike Neal, contacted Tom at the beginning of August 2023 to inform him about Stoner's known crimes. On August 2nd, Mike Neal messaged me for the first time and said, do you know Justin Sexton?

And I said, yes, I do. And you know Megan Stoner? Yes. Have you been giving her money? And I was reluctant to tell him how much I'd given because it was shockingly large. embarrassingly large, insanely large. And so I thought, okay, well, I'd like to see a badge number or something because, you know, Indiana State Treasury officials or agents don't just message you like that out of the blue.

And so he sent me his personal profile on the Indiana State Treasury page. So I said, okay, wow, this guy's top brass. And I messaged Justin after and said, is this guy really top brass, like for the state, Justin verified it. And he said, all right, how much have you? And I told him everything. I spilled my guts. And he said, all right, do you have any information on her?

And I said, am I in trouble? And he says, absolutely not. If anything, you're more in trouble in that you got screwed by someone you thought was your friend. And I thought, oh, God, I'm such an idiot. And I didn't even know what I was an idiot for yet. I just knew, wow, I'm an idiot. It's a miserable feeling when that happens. Then Justin texted me a few hours later.

I looked down on the message and I couldn't believe where it all went. She just wasn't the person I thought. First time I heard that came from Justin and then he said the word scammer, just as Mike had. And instantly my mind said she's a liar. I couldn't speak. Four years of friendship in a minute, completely gone. It took us years to build up what I considered a friendship or even an acquaintanceship. Trust who your friends are and can't be too careful.

But Justin and Mike said, do you want to join the support group? And I said, oh, okay. And that's how I got in the Megan scam awareness Facebook group. I had actually just joined the group when Alyssa made the first botched attempt to catch her. Hi, my name is Alyssa. And I was introduced to Megan through a Facebook group that was created to bring awareness to her scams that she had been committing over the last few years. Once I got into the group and realized, like, what was going on

and that I'd actually encountered this person in the past, I kind of became enthralled with the idea that this small but large group of people on Facebook that were local and non-local would be able to bring justice to some of these victims, victims that I knew, victims that I didn't know, but that I became friends with along the way. I'm so thankful that I met all the people I did on this journey, but also that we were able to stop her crimes along the way, prevent her from doing more crimes in the future,

and now being able to come on here and share my voice and tell people that there really are evil people out in the world and it is possible to stop them the legal way. So I'm super thankful to be here and share my voice on such an evil person. I remember in the pre-interview, you told me that you actually originally sort of met Megan in a buy nothing Facebook group what can you tell us about that so I lived in fisher's at the time it's one of the nicer areas in hamilton county where we live and where most of her crimes were

committed over the time so I joined this group it's basically like where you give your stuff away for free people will come and grab it and then like people will post things and be like hey I have such and such items and people will comment and they'll just pick a person at random usually out of the comments to come pick stuff up so I had post a baby gate and some other stuff. Megan commented on the baby gate and was like, hey, I have a dog. I would really love to come and pick this up from you.

And I was like, sure, great, we can coordinate that. I had seen some of her other posts on there as well, and I was just kind of like, she's an oddball. So I didn't really think too much of it. But she had told me that she would be there. She's like, I'll be there at like 9 o'clock at night. And I was like, okay, cool. Well, I had set other stuff out on my porch,

like some baby clothes and some other stuff, separate bags of people's names on them because they were gonna come the next day, and I didn't want to forget. We had a doorbell camera. And the first thing I remember about this was that she didn't show up until like one o'clock in the morning to grab the baby gate off my porch. When I saw it that morning, my notification that it was like one o'clock and I was like, okay, whatever. At least she grabbed it and she left.

Well, I didn't actually like watch the video. I just saw that it said person detected. And then later that morning, I had a lady message me and was like, hey, I came to pick up the baby clothes and they're not on the porch. And I'm like, that's weird. Where would they have gone? So I go back and look at my doorbell camera and there this girl was taking the baby. gate and taking the other bags of items off of my porch. I just remember being so baffled, like, who would do that?

It just seems so fucking shady to me. I had never had an issue before that, and I've picked up so many things from people over the years. So I messaged the group admins, and I told them, and I sent them my doorbell camera footage, and I'm pretty sure after that she was removed from the group. I don't think I ever saw her post or comment again. It was posted in Noblesville Chatter, which is a pretty big group in Noblesville. I don't know the population of Noblesville, but I do know that that's where I grew up at and that it is at least quadrupled, if not more in size.

And so the Noblesville chatter page is like really, really popular. And people that don't even live in Noblesville and just live in the surrounding areas are in this group because it is just pure chaos. And I remember someone posted in there and be like, there's a Facebook group about Megan. I was like, holy shit. I was like, that's a girl that stole this stuff off my porch. Wait a second. I just saw this girl on the news.

That is that moment for me where I was like, oh my God, I know who. who this girl is. Come to find out that some of the people that she had scammed, I actually knew growing up. That's the moment where I was like, oh my God, I have to get in this group. But it was only open for a couple days. You could only ask to join for, I don't know, maybe a week, maybe two weeks. And then the group immediately was closed down, locked tight. You had to be invited to the group, our message in admin to get someone into the group because they quickly realized that Megan was in the group under some like stupid dummy accounts that she had. Now, I remember like the admin slowly picking through every profile. Like, if you didn't have a profile picture, if you weren't like posting regularly,

if you weren't from the area, they were kicking people out left and right. And there were even people accused of like being Megan in the group. I want to say it was April of last year after those rental scams came to light. And she was arrested on the rental scams. She went and turned herself in. Within days of that, the group was made. When I first joined in, it was like a lot of memes. They were pretty terrible. Looking back in it now, like, it was probably out of pocket in so many ways. But then it was like people just coming out of the woodwork. Like I knew Megan in high school. I was a teacher and I saw Megan slap her teacher in high school.

All of these stories came out and people did their research. These accusations that were coming to light were true. And I think some people were a little worried about like a defamation issue. So they were careful about what they posted. But at the same time, like it was a free-for-all in there for a while. And if you scroll, I mean, the Facebook groups, you know, it's only a little over a year old. But it would take two days to scroll through it and read everything. It is just so much.

But the memes, I remember that being my favorite thing when I joined the group. I was like, it's truly unfortunate that people are like going to this level to like make fun of this girl. But at the same time, like she deserved it. She was just an evil human being. It would be like her in a jail cell with like a orange jumpsuit on and a Jack's Donuts back next to her on the cell floor. She was not in jail for very long. And that's really when the Twitter begging started. Now like thousands of messages she was sent.

Sunday to day asking people like, hey, can you spare $10? I need it. And it was obviously never like a legitimate excuse. But my jail calls with Megan didn't really start until I got her arrested. The second time. Yeah, when she had the warrant. Once the group was made, people had been sitting on this information for good amounts of time.

And it was like shared in the political world because those were the people that were really informed on those things that Megan was saying. This just provided a platform for them to come out and be like, this happened. and this happened and this happened. No one really knew until it was all compiled in one place and you could really sit and look at it and read it and truly understand the gravity of how much this girl was capable of doing in such a short amount of time.

It's not like this girl is 40. She's still young. To be able to manipulate and lie in the sexual assault accusations, the murder for hires, the dragging dead bodies out of the state house during the, COVID, they definitely were things that your average Joe would have known. When I started seeing those things, I was like, maybe this is a lot more than what I thought it was. Like, the rental scams alone, it was just sad to see these people, like one woman was around Christmas time, and she ended up

homeless after Megan had taken the last of her money for a deposit in a first month's rent. I remember thinking in my head, like, how evil do you have to be to do that to someone? And then when everything else started coming out, I was like, okay, I get it. This girl. there's truly something diabolical and manipulative and we'll stop at nothing. I truly think she doesn't have remorse. I truly think that she doesn't understand how evil she is. When I had my phone calls with her, there was never a point in time where I was like, I said something. I was like, oh, she understood what I was saying.

Or she felt bad. There's always an excuse. So when you start hearing all these other stories about the stuff that she's done, it becomes such a serious conversation to have. And you can't really explain it to someone in 10 minutes. There would not be enough time in 10 days. There was a lovely woman in the group who came up with these bingo boards. And she was like, if you want a bingo card, let me know.

And so there were like 50 of us in the group that were actively viewing or commenting or liking. You know, I mean, there were 1,500 people in the group, but there weren't 1,500 people interacting in the group. A lot of them were just looky-lose that were just, like, really interested in the drama. So I remember that bingo group was made. It was like a chat. and we all had bingo cards. Some of the things on the bingo cards were like,

Megan goes back to jail. The bingo group was really where the chase started. She had all these court dates coming up and she had caught new charges. And I remember that being huge in the group. Like she had caught her OWI charge. She got out and continued to scam, driving for Uber under a false name.

All of these things happened after she had been bailed out of jail. So she was out on bond. It took almost a year for her to get charged for the original rental scams. And in that year, that was when her crimes really kind of went crazy. Like the scamming of Tom, like all of that happened after her first arrest when she was out on bond. There were two different sets of movers that she scammed during that time because she kept getting kicked out of the places that she was living.

The Teslas happened after her first arrest. So like the bingo group was guessing what crime she was going to commit next. And we would all be in this chat and like talking about it, closely monitoring what she was doing. That's when we really started to unravel that something was way worse than what we could have ever imagined. I had sent her a text and I said, I'm a reporter and I want to pay you for your life story. Coming up this season on something was wrong. Then when I realized what she had done, I think that's when I like hit it into high gear and I was like, no one deserves to be treated like this.

No one deserves to put trust in someone and then have someone completely ruin that trust. She's posting on social media every day. Somebody needs to give me money, so I have a place to stay. My lawyers are telling me not to turn myself in, and we know she's taking the money from Tom. How many more of him are there that we don't know about? Because how is she affording all of that? Amanda and I are on the phone one day,

and we're connecting, like, friends just laughing, and we're like, how has no one caught her yet? Amanda says, those yoni massages are the one thing she would risk it all for. That's the thing she's obsessed with. could we maybe come up with a fake business that does that? We just need one of these fake Yanni people. I was like, I swear to you, if somebody approached her pretending to be a fake Yanni person,

she would bite in a heartbeat. Once we started messaging, it didn't take long for her to just start trauma dumping in a way that, like, you would not believe. They thought it was hilarious, and they were like, okay, this is a great opportunity to get her. and then we all had a group chat together. We added Alyssa in as well because she had had that experience,

that first attempt to try to get Megan. Thank you so much for listening. Something Was Wrong is a Broken Cycle Media production, created and produced by me, Tiffany Reese. Thank you so much to our associate producers, Amy B. Chessler and Lily Rowe. Thank you to our audio engineer, Becca High, and our social media marketing manager Lauren Barkman of luxury media. Additional thanks to our partners, Grant at Wondery,

Marissa, Travis, and our team at WME, Jason and Jennifer at KSCO, our cybersecurity team, Darkbox security, and my lawyer, Alan. And to all of you who make our show possible with your support and listenership. Special shout out to Neon Honey and Gabonnas for covering our theme song,

Gladrag's original song, you think you this season. For more music from them, check out the episode notes or your favorite streaming app. In the episode notes, you'll always find content warnings,

sources, and resources, with links to our websites and social media as well. Thank you so much to every survivor and ally who has trusted us to help share their stories. We are forever grateful.

Until next time, stay safe friends.