Woman scammed for wedding ring to help husband

ORLANDO, FL (KTRK) -- When Megan Starich showed up to exchange her treasured wedding ring for several thousand dollars, she thought she had done everything right.

She decided to sell the $5,000 ring to help pay for her husband's medical bills, which stemmed from a 15-ft. fall at work, she told WFTV.

"My husband fell 15 ft. onto his head, onto a concrete floor," she said. "(He) suffered 21 skull fractures, brain hemorrhaging (and) brain swelling."

With the bills for his care, a special needs child at home and being on disability herself, Starich and her family made the difficult decision to sell the ring.

"For us, you know, family is forever and diamonds are not," Starich said.

Starich listed the ring on a for-sale-by-owner site online and arranged to meet a potential buyer.

She showed up with another person and wasn't going to hand over the ring until she was holding the cash.

But the moment Starich took off the ring and put it in a box, the buyer snatched it from her hand and ran off.

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"It took one second for him to grab the ring out of my hand and be off," she said.

Altamont Springs police said Starich wasn't the only person who has been victimized in this way.

The man in other similar crimes matches the description Starich gave police, investigators said.

One potential victim contacted Starich on Facebook after she made a post about her experience and said the same man had responded to an advertisement for a wedding ring.

When the woman on Facebook told the man she wanted to meet at the police station to make the exchange, he bailed on the deal.

With all her current hardships, the theft of her wedding ring has made the situation all the more difficult to bear, Starich said.

"The fact that he could take advantage of somebody like me, I just can't believe that people would stoop that low," she said.

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