CT man charged with 200 counts of fraud, identity theft, forgery www.privaeofficer.com
A man with a record of assaulting woman, stalking woman and trying to drug women for sex was charged Tuesday with more than 200 counts of fraud, forgery and identify theft.
Robert W. Gross, 59, is accused of stealing three credit cards from two real estate agents with whom he had set up appointments to see houses. He told the agents, both women, that he was wealthy. One showed him houses along the shoreline and another homes in West Hartford.
In one case, one of the agents later told police, she was alone with Gross in the basement of an empty house when she got what she described as a “strange feeling.” She told Gross she would wait for him outside. She later dodged Gross’ calls and text message, she told police, because she was concerned.
In Gross’ 27-year criminal record, he has been convicted of exposing himself while holding a knife in front of a female real estate agent and calling a female interior decorator to his house, grabbing her and clamping his hand over her mouth before she escaped. He also has served time for scheming to molest a financial consultant and two other professional women in Vernon.
More recently, Gross was in prison for probation violations and stalking convictions after acting on his compulsion for women in professional attire and their feet, in Buckland Hills Mall. He approached one woman in a department store, telling her she had beautiful feet; she fled. In another instance, he was found on his hands and knees admiring a woman’s feet. He claimed he was looking for shoes.
In a confession to Vernon Det. Steve Sartor, Gross acknowledged stealing the credit cards from the real estate agents, according to the warrant. He told Sartor he had lost his job and needed to support himself.
Gross is already jailed on credit card theft charges from other communities.
Vernon Det. Don Skewes wrote in the warrant for Gross’ arrest that Gross made fraudulent charges in excess of $13,000. He faces 72 counts of identity theft, 72 counts of credit card fraud, 72 counts of second-degree forgery and a single count of third-degree larceny.
