By Monica Pryts
SOUTH PYMATUNING TOWNSHIP — A former Sharon man recently sentenced to prison for scamming a Shenango Township widow faces charges in a similar case out of South Pymatuning Township.
Michael W. Klingensmith, 43, was charged Feb. 19 with two counts each of theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception and deceptive businesses practices.
The charges were held to the Mercer County Court of Common Pleas at a preliminary hearing Monday with District Judge Brian Arthur, Greenville.
According to the police complaint:
Klingensmith on Feb. 4 called an elderly South Pymatuning Township woman, saying he worked for Culligan and needed to check her water system because of problems with the main system.
He said he could visit when her husband was home and the woman said he was deceased. She gave Klingensmith directions to her home and he checked out her system, telling her it was outdated and he could work out a �really good deal.�
The woman was suspicious and told Klingensmith she didn�t think he worked for Culligan. He dialed a number on his cell phone and she heard a voice on the other line say �Culligan.�
Klingensmith said she could trust him and he could lose his job for charging her $1,650, saving her about $400. She wrote him a check and he returned Feb. 5 to check her plumbing and said he could get her a new system and water purifier for $1,220.
The woman wrote him a second check and was uneasy, but Klingensmith kept saying she could trust him and she�d get a full rebate for the purifier.
Klingensmith tested her water Feb. 6 and said he made a mistake. He needed more money to install the system and would pay back the woman. She refused and said she wouldn�t give him any more.
The woman called her bank to stop payments on the checks she gave to Klingensmith, but they were already cashed. Klingensmith had left and called her later that day to say he�d install everything Feb. 10.
The woman told him Feb. 7 things didn�t add up and she wanted to cancel the deal and get her money back.
Klingensmith said he already bought the equipment and he�d need time to return it before he could reimburse her. The woman didn�t hear from him again and never got her money back.
Klingensmith was sentenced Sept. 25 in Mercer County Common Pleas Court to 2� to 7 years in prison for scamming a 70-year-old widow out of $10,000 for work he never did.
He agreed to pay back that woman. Police said he went to her Shenango Township home Jan. 26 and gave her the impression he knew her late husband.
He told her that her well water treatment system needed replaced and the woman ended up paying him $10,190, but he never returned to do the work.
In 2002, Klingensmith was sentenced to 6� to 14 years in prison for similar scams in Mercer County and other areas for defrauding 16 people of $550,000, which he spent at off-track betting parlors, prosecutors have said.
