It seemed at first to be a genuine friendship between the Odenton man who ran a Glen Burnie hobby shop and a mentally disabled man who unloads trucks at a post office.
But Anne Arundel County prosecutors have accused the older man of stealing more than $237,000 from the younger, vulnerable one, including convincing him to repeatedly refinance his tiny house so that the mortgage ballooned from $13,000 to $220,000.
Anne Arundel County prosecutors said Thursday that Eugene Allen Hinson Jr., 57, was arrested in Front Royal, Va., where he now lives, after he was charged in a 14-count criminal information with defrauding Thomas Newberger, 48, of Glen Burnie, out of thousands of dollars. Hinson was in the custody of Warren County, Va., officials Thursday, and Arundel prosecutors said they are awaiting word on extradition.
The investigation, which was sparked by Newberger's family, who questioned sudden changes in the man's finances, took two years, as investigators gathered financial records and sifted through about two years of transactions, officials said.
"The guy really took advantage of a very kindhearted but very vulnerable man," said State's Attorney Frank R. Weathersbee.
Neither Hinson nor his family could be reached Thursday.
Prosecutors say that Hinson struck up a friendship with Newberger when he began visiting Hinson's hobby store, Dad & Sons, in Glen Burnie, taking the younger man to lunch at a nearby Friendly's restaurant. According to the criminal information, prosecutors charge that Hinson financially exploited Newberger for more than two years, ending in 2007.
Maximum penalties for convictions on each charge range from 15 years in prison for exploitation of a vulnerable adult to five years for fraud.
Authorities say the fraud included telling Newberger he was the vice president of Hinson's company and asking him to write rent checks for $1,400 a month for the store, though rent was only $1,200 and the checks were not made out to the leasing agent, according to Kristin Fleckenstein, spokeswoman for the state's attorney's office.
In addition, authorities say that Newberger's money was used to buy a 2000 Mazda MPV and a 2001 GM Sierra truck that were used by Hinson's children, she said.
Newberger does not have a driver's license, said his brother, Joe Newberger, of Pennsylvania.
The family is working to keep Newberger in his one-bedroom house — which was threatened with foreclosure — by explaining to lender's representatives that fraud is suspected.
"We have been in touch with whoever the mortgage holder is," Joe Newberger said.
"Our parents set up Tommy so he would be able to live on his own. None of us were his guardian," Joe Newberger said, referring to his eight brothers and sisters. "I think my parents honestly thought Tommy was going to make it."
Thomas Newberger has worked for about 26 years at the post office in Glen Burnie, mostly unloading trucks.
Joe Newberger said financial irregularities seemed to take place during a time when their parents, who he said closely monitored his brother as he lived on his own, had grown gravely ill and died. In retrospect, he said, the Newberger children, all grown, were probably preoccupied with their parents at the time.
He said that when questioned about the financial irregularities, his brother became upset.
"Tommy went through a lot of anguish over this," he said.