PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — A New Hampshire man has been indicted on a charge of attempting to swindle an elderly widow out of $35,000 by telling her he needed a liver transplant.
Foster’s Daily Democrat reports Thursday a Rockingham Grand jury handed up an attempted theft by deception charge on 24-year-old Nathan Hughes. Police said he lived in a fraternity house in Durham while attending classes at the University of New Hampshire.
Police say Hughes befriended the Kittery, Maine, woman after waiting on her several times at a Portsmouth restaurant and told her he needed the money for an emergency transplant to save his life. Police said he told the woman the transplant would happen in the Virgin Islands. They were made aware of the situation by a financial institution.