The Sting in Cascade

An 87-year-old man and his wife were about to hand over $250,000 in gold to people posing as federal agents when Kent County sheriff's deputies arrested the suspects on a Cascade Township road.

Christian Jalan Matthews, 23, of Pennsylvania and Taylor Nicole Mitchell-Meeks, 28, of New Jersey were taken into custody after the gold exchange, according to court records cited by MLive and WOODTV.

The suspects represented themselves as agents with the Federal Trade Commission and the Social Security Administration, police said. They gained access to the couple's computer and convinced the victims their savings were tied to criminal activity.

"A lot of times, these elderly people are convinced the scam is real," Kent County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Scott Dietrich told WOODTV.

How the Scam Unfolded

Police were alerted on June 6 to a potential gold-fraud scam unfolding in Ada Township. The husband and wife told deputies they were being defrauded of $250,000 through an online scheme.

The suspects instructed the couple to:

• Cash out their life savings
• Convert the funds into gold bars
• Meet a "federal agent" at a location in Cascade Township to turn over the gold

Once the exchange occurred, undercover deputies moved in and arrested Matthews and Mitchell-Meeks.

Charges and Bond

Both suspects face felony charges in Kent County's 63rd District Court, according to MLive reporter Bradley Massman. The charges include:

• Conducting a criminal enterprise
• False pretenses involving $100,000 or more
• Using a computer to commit a crime

Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, according to WOODTV.

Matthews and Mitchell-Meeks remain in the Kent County Jail on $500,000 cash bonds. They were scheduled for a probable cause hearing on June 18.

The suspects admitted to committing similar crimes across the Midwest over the previous four months, police said.

A Growing National Problem

The Ada case is part of a wider trend. In early May, a 79-year-old woman in Spring Lake was told her Social Security funds were being used to support terrorism and directed to buy $700,000 in gold. An alert store owner intervened, and the courier sent to collect the gold ended up with a bag of chocolate coins and felony charges, according to WOODTV.

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that losses from gold courier scams topped $55 million from May through December 2023. The agency warns that scammers pose as government officials, tech support, or financial institutions before telling victims their accounts are hacked or at risk.

"Real government agents do not ask people to buy gold bars, deliver gold to couriers, move money to a 'secure government' account, or withdraw cash to protect it," the Federal Trade Commission states on its website.

Sgt. Dietrich told WOODTV that family members and local businesses often play the critical role in stopping these scams before money is lost.

The Cascade Township meeting point became the scene where deputies finally caught the suspects red-handed, sparing the elderly couple from losing their life savings.