Two days after Veterans Day, a homeless man from Aurora was charged with posing as a former military service member while panhandling.
Scott A. Schweitzer, 55, most recently of the 600 block of South River Street, Aurora, was charged Sunday with false personation near East New York Street and North Union Street after attempting to beg for money with a sign indicating he was a homeless veteran, police spokesman Dan Ferrelli said in an email.
At about 4 p.m. Sunday, an Aurora police officer saw Schweitzer, carrying a sign that read “Can You Help A Homeless Vet? God Bless You!!! Thanks,” walking in the roadway and appearing to receive money from someone inside a vehicle, Ferrelli said.
Schweitzer claimed to have been in the Vietnam War in 1967, which would have made him 6 years old at the time, Ferrelli said.
“He apparently has more luck while panhandling if people think he is a veteran, according to the police report,” Ferrelli said.
Booking reports state that Schweitzer was released on a personal recognizance bond.
In 2005, Schweitzer was sentenced to three years in prison for a burglary conviction, according to Kane County records.
Other past convictions in Kane County include domestic battery; battery; criminal trespass to land; soliciting a ride on the roadway; consumption of alcohol in a public place; and public intoxication.
In DuPage County in 1995, he was convicted of felony theft or unauthorized control of property worth between $300 and $10,000, records show. Other past convictions in DuPage County, mostly in the 1990s as well, include retail theft, felony deception/writing a bad check over $150, and domestic battery.
More recently, he was charged this June with panhandling and this October with possession of open alcohol, both ordinance violations.
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