According to numerous published reports by local newspapers and New York City television stations, a man was allowed to enter Hoboken High School, meet with students, and scammed them of hundreds of dollars worth of their time and labor. The man gained access to the students with administrators consent and wielding a false promise of a job for students which included handing out flyers for a reported $10 an hour. The story made regional news in the tri-state area as it aired on WABC-TV on May 27th with a follow-up story on June 7th. Most disturbing was that the man met with these children in a fast food restaurant and in a warehouse in Hoboken. As you read the story you will notice that the students' intuition was that something was "not right" but they placed their faith and safety on the belief that the gentleman was previously vetted by the leaders of the school and district. Evidently, this vetting did not take place. HOBOKEN, NJ (WABC) -- A man conned Hoboken High School students into selling fake raffle tickets.
A voicemail message the con man left for one of the students said: "Tyquan right now, come to the warehouse, thank you."
It was all part of the scam that had high school teens passing out flyers for a company that didn't exist that was fronted by a man who was ripping people off.
The man, who identified himself as Dr. Dexter Davis, was invited into the high school last week by an administrator.
While on school grounds he was allowed to meet with students, and he offered some of them jobs.Tyquan Goodwin and Paula Vazquez were among a group of students who agreed to work for him.
"Honestly, we all had our doubts from the very first day but we didn't know how to come out and say it," said student, Paula Valazquez.
The students took to the streets though, putting their doubts aside, and working long stretches to hand out raffle tickets for a bogus $500 prize.
They met with the con man at a warehouse and a McDonald's.
The students even gave him the $180 they'd earned working 8 hour days.
They sensed that something didn't add up, so they Googled his name.
What they found confirmed what they suspected, but didn't want to believe.
A Dr. Dexter Davis had been accused of being a con man last year in Connecticut.
They believe it's the same guy.
When Eyewitness News contacted school officials, they apologized to the parents and the students, and called what happened "unfortunate".
The superintendent told Eyewitness News: "That's our error and we admit to that. We admit we were wrong. An error in judgment was made by a professional involved and we are still investigating how this happened."
