Richard Overton is 112-years-old and he is Amerca’s oldest veteran. His family said they don’t know how a thief got Overton’s social security and personal checking account numbers.
Volma Overton Jr., a cousin to the World War II veteran discovered the crime when he made a deposit into his account.
“I looked at it — what the h— are these debits?” Overton’s cousin told KXAN-TV.
There were several purchases of saving bonds with Treasury Direct made in recent months. By Thursday of this week, there was nothing left in the account.
“It’s a shock, it hurts, it hurts tremendously,” Overton Jr. said.
The family doesn’t know who may have stolen Overton’s money. And his cousin said “it’d be terrible to know somebody who’s been that close to him has used him like that.” The family didn’t give the amount that was actually stolen, but they did say that it was a “considerable amount.”
The oldest veteran in America now lives in Austin, Texas. He volunteered to serve our country in 1942 and became a member of the Army’s 188th Aviation Engineer Battalion. It was an all-black unit that served on various islands in the Pacific.
Overton was honored by then-President Barack Obama in 2013 during a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Ceremony.
He not only is the oldest veteran, but is also the oldest man in America, according to the Gerontology Research Group.
In 2016, his family launched a GoFundMe page to raise funds to help pay for his round-the-clock home care. People have donated more than $330,000 since then.
His family said the money from the online fundraising page is intact in a separate bank account.
Police are investigating the incident and hope to find the source of this theft from one of America’s true heroes.
Share this:
