“Mike Cameron”, unavailable for comment. From the New York Daily News’ Dave Goldiner (link courtesy Maura Johnston)
A wealthy Florida chiropractor thought she was dating Mets ace Pedro Martinez, but the lovelorn back cracker wound up being scammed out of almost $1 million.Dr. Rhonda Schroeder says she was fleeced by Shirley Gordon, a career con woman who enlisted two male pals to pose as the superstar pitcher.
Schroeder, 34, is suing the imprisoned grifter to get back some of the cash she splurged in an effort to keep her bogus boyfriend happy, the St. Petersburg Times reported yesterday.
The phony romance started in January 2005 when Schroeder went on a date set up by Gordon with a man she believed to be Martinez, prosecutors said.
Much later, Schroeder identified a photo of the man – who turned out to be Kenneth Day (above), an ex-boyfriend of Gordon’s, prosecutors said. Day, who has not been charged in the case, bears a resemblance to the eight-time All Star pitcher, although he has a scar above his left eye, the newspaper said. Martinez has no such mark.
That led to a cyber-courtship that went on for months, only this time Gordon’s jailbird boyfriend, Greg Buchanan, allegedly was playing Martinez.
If this case and the recent Ben Roethlisberger impersonation are anything to go, I might as well start telling women my name’s Robert Redford (the Craig Finn scam wasn’t nearly as lucractive as I’d have liked).
(UPDATE : some heavy background on Shirley Gordon from the St. Petersburg Times)
hA!
I used to work for Rhonda. It isn’t that she is dumb, she is actually quite smart but oftentimes she tries to see the best in people versus the worst. Sometimes you end up getting bitten. Should there have been red flags? Without a doubt. But you all know as well as I do that when you think you love someone, common sense gets clouded. I didn’t always agree with the things Rhonda did but on the whole, she did not deserve this nor does she deserve to be humiliated because she trusted someone she shouldn’t have. We’ve all done stupid things for those we love and for family. Don’t be so hard on her.
Kathi,
I don’t mean to add further ridicule to Dr. Schroeder’s google search results, but how’s this for a red flag? The gentleman above doesn’t even slightly resemble Pedro Martinez.