DENTON – An anonymous Good Samaritan sent a check for $4,500 to help defray the losses of an 84-year-old Denton woman conned out of nearly $20,000.

Robert Louis Herrin

A suspect, Robert Louis Herrin, 39, of Richardson, was arrested March 27 while attempting to withdraw $2,500 from the victim's account at a credit union, said Denton police Detective Brandon Hobon.

The bank's manager and a teller tried to talk with the woman alone, but Herrin kept interrupting and trying to hurry the transaction along, police said. Herrin was charged with theft against the elderly, giving false identification and records tampering, a report said.

Police estimate the woman was fleeced for $19,440.

The Good Samaritan, who lives in Wylie, sent the check for $4,500 to Denton police after reading about the woman's plight.

"As the son of an elderly parent, I was heartened to learn that the [credit union] staff ... intervened on behalf of this woman ... and that the thief was caught due to their actions," the Good Samaritan wrote.

The names of both the donor and the victim are being withheld.

A police report said the suspect claimed to work for Alcoa Inc. and told the woman last August that he needed to replace the filter in her water heater. The suspect returned six times for various repairs – in some cases working on the same problem twice – and charged her a total of almost $12,000.

When the elderly woman became suspicious, the suspect offered to investigate the matter for $5,500, and she agreed, according to the report.

Herrin is also wanted by Austin police in connection with an aggravated robbery there in November. He was being held in the Denton County Jail.

Hobon credited alert credit union employees with the arrest.

"A lot of these crimes go unreported by the elderly and disabled because they are embarrassed that they got scammed," Hobon said. "This probably would have gone unreported if not for [the employees] taking the initiative."