Elderly conman leaves ugly voicemails

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. - See something. Say something. A policy that should apply to any sort of wrongdoing.

But a former caregiver for an Alzheimer's patient said he regrets ever blowing the whistle on alleged financial abuse because of what suspected thief Jerry Hoffman wound up doing to him.

The 82-year-old Hoffman first came to the FOX 5 I-Team's attention in 2007. He arrived in Georgia bragging his company would soon be making five times as much money as Wal-Mart.

He promised to take vacant stores and transform them into one-stop mini-warehouses he called Boxcar Stores.

But despite big talk and putting out millions of dollars in stock offerings, Hoffman still hasn't built a single store. Instead, he created a steady stream of unpaid employees... unpaid contractors... and court judgments against him.

Hoffman served prison time in the 1970s for his involvement in an off-shore trading scam.

But perhaps the most disturbing allegation involving Hoffman these days was what happened to Jane Grant, a Sandy Springs woman suffering from Alzheimer's.

"How much of your mom's money do you think Jerry Hoffman spent?" asked FOX 5 I-Team reporter Randy Travis to one of her sons Jim Grant.

"Probably $1.1 million," answered Grant. "Us as a family knew what he was and had figured it out. Couldn't convince her of that. Since she was pretty much with him all the time, you know, he was convincing her that we were the bad guys."

In fact, the family struggled to prove to a Fulton County Probate judge that Hoffman was stealing from their mother. Then, in 2012, a former Hoffman employee stepped forward. Erik Leavell had been hired for a variety of assignments, including paying Jane Grant's bills. Leavell told the court he discovered evidence Hoffman was stealing from the confused widow. The judge severed Hoffman from any financial involvement in Ms. Grant's affairs. Sandy Springs police began a felony theft investigation.

Soon after, Hoffman began targeting Leavell, posting his Social Security number online, building a website in Leavell's name filled with inaccurate, derogatory comments. And Leavell reported that over a two-year period Hoffman called him an estimated 600 times, often leaving frightening voicemail messages:

"You're a very disturbed individual. Your history... we know so much about you, you can't imagine."

"You're a very sick, destructive and psychotic. It's all over the web and there's nothing you can do about it."

"You're a disgrace to the human race!"

"You're a sick, disturbed individual and all your family members have been informed."

"You son of a b---- . You degenerative b---- you. Everybody knows what you are."

"I was going to be shot in the head," Leavell remembered. "My throat slit. That a man was going to take pictures and have them anonymously sent to my mother on Mother's Day."

"Our family owes a big thanks to Erik," Jim Grant insisted. "A lot of people wouldn't have even bothered. I've heard the recordings. His life's been threatened by (Hoffman)."

"He sounds like a geriatric bully," observed Randy.

"He sounds like a geriatric mobster," Grant responded.

Leavell reported the harassment to Sandy Springs police. They took no action to stop Hoffman, leaving the whistleblower frustrated and afraid. A Sandy Springs police spokesman said those accusations "would be dependent on where Leavell is a resident."

When the FOX 5 I-Team reached Hoffman by phone, he said he had not called his former employee at all. When we told him we heard all those voicemail messages, Hoffman quickly changed his story, insisting "I've never threatened him."

Last summer, Leavell turned over the recordings to police in Tecumseh, Michigan, where he now lives. He immediately got a personal protection order. When Hoffman continued to call, the angry old man was taken into custody in Indiana, extradited to Michigan, and charged with stalking.

He could soon be back in Georgia to face theft by taking charges in Sandy Springs, suspected of stealing at least $400,000 from Jane Grant, a criminal case that could not have been made without Erik Leavell.

"Did you ever think this day would come?"

"No. Not without pushing to have this happen ourselves," Leavell replied.

"Do you regret blowing the whistle?" asked Randy.

"Absolutely," Leavell responded without hesitation.

"Does it give you any comfort to know that her life is at least a little better today because you came forward than if you had never said anything?"

"If you're putting the choice in front of me of would I do something for Mrs. Grant, absolutely. If you're asking me would I do something in a situation where I had to trust the Sandy Springs police department? Would I ever do that?  Never again."

Jane Grant now lives in a memory care facility near her two sons. They have started the process to sell her Sandy Springs home so they will enough money to pay for her care.