Lubbock Woman Charged With Filing False Police Report
By: Allison Morrison
Updated: January 14, 2009
A Lubbock woman lied to police and lied to us about a burglary, all to take advantage of the giving nature of folks in and around Lubbock.
48-year-old Rachel Benites is the Lubbock woman who told us her house was burglarized while she was at a chemotherapy session.
Police say now, that story was a lie.
Benites initially filed a police report on January 5th, saying things from her home had been stolen.
She then contacted us for help.
After our story aired, Benites received thousands in donations from folks around Lubbock, but police now say Benites actually sold the household items she claimed were stolen.
Benites is in police custody and faces misdemeanor charges for filing a false police report.
"A lot of those are cash donations. What we're hoping is some of them were made in the form of checks, so there may be a possibility of getting some of the money back to folks, but we just don't know and unfortunately there are going to be some people who made donations and we simply just can't get any of that money back to them," Capt. Greg Stevens with Lubbock PD says.
Benites set up a donation account with City Bank, so obviously, Lubbock Police advise folks not to make further donations to that account.
