Music store sells 11 organs to sick woman

updated 11:17 p.m. ET May 26, 2005

PORT RICHEY, Fla. - A music store manager was charged Thursday with exploiting a woman with Alzheimer’s disease who authorities say bought 11 organs from him over 18 months — including four on a single day.

Scott L. Heyder, 36, sold the 79-year-old a progressively more expensive string of the instruments beginning in 2003 — even after her family pleaded with him to stop, Pasco County sheriff’s detectives said Thursday.

Heyder was charged with felony exploitation of the elderly and was held on $10,000 bail at the Pasco County Jail.

The woman spent about $25,000 on organs and ended up with one worth only about half that, said sheriff’s spokesman Kevin Doll. He said she has not received any money back from the music store, Fletcher Music Center at Gulfview Square Mall.

“I think it’s unconscionable, especially after the family confronted this salesperson and said, ‘Our mother has mental failings due to Alzheimer’s, she doesn’t know what she’s doing,”’ Doll said.

A telephone message seeking comment was left at Heyder’s home and not returned Thursday. Officials at Fletcher’s Music also did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Detectives requested that the woman not be publicly identified, fearing she might become the victim of another financial scam.

On Wednesday, meanwhile, a landscaper was charged with exploiting a 79-year-old Jacksonville woman who authorities say paid him more than $90,000 for yard work. David B. Phillips, 26, was released from the Duval County jail on $50,000 bail.

Police said the woman suffers from memory loss, and was supposed to pay Phillips only $80 a month. Police said she told investigators she paid the additional money because “at that time I didn’t have anyone else to do my work.”

No telephone listing for Phillips could be located Thursday.

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