Old Con Game

She may have trouble getting around at her age, but she apparently had no problem going from dealership to dealership, conning them out of cars.

Betty A. Gooch, 75, used her age and apparent frailty to bilk about a dozen dealerships in metro Chicago's Cook, McHenry and Lake counties over the past four years, say authorities.

Using a cane and with an oxygen cart in tow, she shuffled into several Chicago-area dealerships, then paid for cars with bad checks, police said.

Those include $36,534 for a new Toyota Sienna, $20,041 for a Toyota Matrix and $22,000 for a Mazda SUV, police say.

She faces charges of theft by deception and passing bad checks. She's being investigated for other possible crimes.

It's not her first brush with the law. After admitting she wrote a bad check to buy a motorcycle, Gooch in October was sentenced to a year of court supervision.