An Amish dairy farmer in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania reportedly told CNN that a little more than five years ago, he welcomed “a nervous, fidgeting man onto his property to discuss the sale of puppies that the farmer breeds as a side business.”
“He says, ‘We are going to take that puppy and that puppy,’” the farmer told the network on the condition of anonymity. “And his assistant grabs the two puppies, takes them out the door, and he pulls out a check. I was like, ‘Oh no, is this guy going to pay me with a check?’ I was very suspicious.”
“His instinct was right,” noted CNN. “The check bounced. The name on it: George Santos, better known today as a recently elected and increasingly scandal-plagued Republican congressman from New York.”
The farmer said Santos was accompanied by an unnamed woman, described as “an assistant,” and asked to purchase a pair of German shepherds.
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A deal was struck, in principle, inside the farmer’s milk house. The assistant quickly grabbed the dogs and left for the car. By then, the farmer told CNN, he began to realize he was “stuck,” hoodwinked by a stranger he thought he’d never see or hear of again.
“I told him I don’t take checks. All I can take is cash. And he said, ‘You expect me to carry that much cash to buy a bunch of puppies on a trip like this? I do not have cash. The only thing I can give you is a check,’” the farmer recounted. “I thought to myself, it looks like I am done!”
As he expected, the check bounced – leaving the farmer on the hook for a bank fee. He was never repaid.
Not long after his interaction with the Amish farmer, Santos was charged with theft in Pennsylvania after several bad checks were written in his name to other dog breeders in the region, CNN reported, citing a former lawyer friend who helped him navigate the case.
The case was confirmed as “theft by deception” by the York County District Attorney’s Office, which told CNN it was later dismissed after Santos claimed the checks were “stolen” from him.
