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How to Give Good Deeds a Bad Name

(By Eric Gay -- The Associated Press)

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The police decided that the person best able to solve their mystery just might be Richard Bishop. No trouble finding him, mind you. He was just hanging around the post office when they pulled up Friday.

After a bit of "how do you do," police charged Bishop with three counts of destruction of property.

Police said this case of the good Samaritan gone bad, a variation of the wolf in sheep's clothing, was something new in the annals of scam artistry in Fairfax.

"I've never heard of such a thing," Officer Rich Henry said.

Police said Bishop, who is 53 and lives on 15th Street NW in the District, wasn't exactly making out like, well, a bandit.

Henry opined that he "picked victims based on their vulnerability." The older you get, the more daunting tire-changing becomes. But the AARP set generally isn't able to lay down large tips to folks who wield their tire irons.

No, "we're not talking about large sums of money," Henry said.

-- Tom Jackman, staff writer

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