After being shunned by his family for being gay, 24-year-old Christopher Higa decided he would impersonate his 21-year-old brother Nicholas in order to open credit cards and buy a car.
The L.A. Times doesn’t report exactly how he did it, but we imagine he stole his bro’s ID. The Times does have the specifics of his sketchy behavior, as confessed to police:
Christopher Higa told police he used his brother’s identity at Toyota of Glendale to purchase a 2011 Chevy Malibu, which he returned after discovering he could get a better deal on a newer model at the Chevrolet dealership, according to police. He allegedly told Toyota employees that he was unable to make payments because he was unemployed, so they took the car back.
Glendale Police Det. Robert Zaun described it as a “carefully constructed fraud by Christopher Higa, who obviously has no morals or conscience.”
He is charged with six felony counts of identity theft, second-degree commercial burglary, grand theft auto, issuing multiple checks with insufficient funds, and grand theft of personal property for pilfering $950 from Mad Dog Bail Bonds, according to a Los Angeles County Superior Court complaint.
I feel the pain of gays who are shunned by their families, but that doesn’t make it okay to steal from them. But you could make the point that they deserve financial retribution for the emotional damage they purposefully inflicted on their own flesh and blood. What say you, commenters?
Nick
lol what goes around comes around
Prof Sancho Panza
But even if he’s entitled to retribution from his family, does give him a free pass to steal from a bank, a car dealership, and a bail bondsman? He used his brother’s identity, but it was still the businesses he stole from that took the hit.
Kayak
Doing bad deeds is never the answer.
I wonder if the brother was bad to him?!
Kamuriie
It’s not hard to *sympathize* with him trying to “get back” at his family (even if it’s wrong to do so), but all this will do is solidify, in his family’s mind, that he’s a “bad person” (which is why he’s gay, in their minds).
cam
“”
Glendale Police Det. Robert Zaun described it as a “carefully constructed fraud by Christopher Higa, who obviously has no morals or conscience.””
______________________
Yes, they cut off all contact with a son just because he’s gay but he is the one with no conscience.
sp
I do not condone it but I understand it, he had a fit of rage. Finally, it can be interpreted as childish. If I were his brother would forgive him and not press charges.
Anyway, it was not very clever because he, being gay, is going to have a very bad experiences in prison.
But I’m also sick of reading about reports that speak of the many gay people that are rejected by his family and they end up in a dire economic and psychological situation.
Bigg
I’m not gonna condemn him – but I’d find him a lot easier to defend if he’d spent the money on rent and food. Just saying.
Clockwork
We should all rip off from our families and friends who break our trust.
We’re victims and we deserve compensation!
TheMarc
He is absolutely not entitled to financial compensation and is certainly not granted carte blanche to commit crimes and heinous acts against his family, businesses or anyone else for that matter. Just because something monstrous was done to someone, it doesn’t give them the right to be monstrous. I feel for him, I do. But this is not the way to handle an unjust abandonment by his family. Too many people use this type of justification to engage in criminal and evil acts. “I was molested, so I that’s why I molested others.” “The MAN is keeping me down, so I’m going to rob a convenience store.” It’s not acceptable and should not be endorsed by anyone.
iDavid
Emotional responsibility can be a hard lesson to learn. Hope this guy gets it through this ordeal. Noone else is responsible for his feelings, no matter what, tho not easy to say when you’re crushed by your own family. I know the feeling and issue well, took me years and beaucoupe counselling to come to terms with it. It’s called Betrayal.
Scott
This story makes me wonder if I might have a similar problem in reverse. I keep getting credit card offers in the mail in my brother’s name. I’m gay and he’s not. He has an alcohol and drug problem. I was told that I’m ill for being gay.
Randall Reynolds
I find this hilarious, nonetheless….
ousslander
Everybody is taking the criminals word that he was shunned for being gay. maybe there were other reasons like being a stealing, lying, cheating, douche bag criminal. Even if they shunned him for being that in no way excuse gives him carte blanche to break the law.
13Zeroither
was there ever a lgbt person who went pants crapping insane and just killed their family members who disown them?
iDavid
This guy represents putting the thoughts of many into the actions of one. In a perfect world, discrimination would be punished by law.
jody
hahaha!! honestly im a good friend of his lol i would have done the same thing as a matter of fact thats how i got this here mercedes thanx brother!!!!!!!
jody
all you ppl who talk about criminals are stupid you act as if youre a complete angel!!! so you never broke a traffic law?? went to the store and tried a piece of candy when there was clearly no sampling? littered? or anything else that ppl dont know about? or maybe they do? fact as all that stuff is criminal so re-examine yourself before you use the word criminal. besides learn about corperation and all it entiles and see he stole from no one. maybe you should call your government criminal they commit fraud against you and your name 24/7. youre being stole from all time, focus your attention on that instead of someone getting what he already has coming. So pathetic and ignorant.