Cop Supporters Duped by Scammer, Say Police

The families of Texas cops have been duped after a veteran who claimed his pickup truck was vandalized with BlackLivesMatter and #FYF graffiti was arrested on Friday for allegedly vandalizing the truck himself. Scott Lattin had claimed his truck was attacked after he had displayed pro-cop messages on his truck in the wake of the murder of a Harris County deputy sheriff.

“My husband is an officer,” said one woman on a social media page, according to Fox4. “I can give you $25 because that is all I can afford.”

A GoFundMe account had been set up to raise money for the repairs to Lattin’s truck. That page has been taken down since his arrest, but not before raising nearly $6,000. Police will be seeking to get that money returned to the donors.

Police in Whitney, Texas arrested Lattin Friday after it was discovered that his September 8th claim that vandals had sprayed his pickup truck with “Black Lives Matter” and anti-police messages was a hoax. He had also claimed other physical damage to the truck including the seats being sliced open with a knife.

Whitney Police Chief Chris Bentley is calling the new developments “very disturbing.”

Chief Bentley responded to the spouse of a police officer had been duped by the apparent fraud by saying her comment, “just ripped at my heart.”

“We had initial video when the officers took the report and then when we saw your story on Channel 4 … we looked at those two videos, there were some differences in those and that led us to take the investigation into a different direction,” Bentley told FOX4.

Bentley said his officers saw no damage on the inside of Lattin’s truck, but FOX4 cameras showed footage of ripped seats and a broken glove box.

Lattin denied destroying the inside of his own truck but only after he admitted to doing as much for insurance money in an affidavit.