Pretending to be a member of the military to collect money from people is illegal. One man is now accused of doing it multiple times.
“The lies were just so crazy, that at the end you kind of just thought, okay, you’re insane,” Katie Brees said about her interaction with Kyle Barwan.
Polk County deputies have now charged Kyle Barwan with stolen valor for a third time. They said he is telling people he is in the military to make a quick buck.
“That’s all he does, he gets money from every female he tries to scam, girls are giving him hundreds of dollars,” Brees said.
Brees said she met Barwan online and gave him $60 herself before she found out what he was doing. She’s not surprised that, even on probation, Barwan was still lying and stealing.
“Just being nice is a crime around him, see him, run, for real,” Brees said.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said you won’t be seeing him now. He’s locked up after scamming two women in Lakeland at the end of April.
“He’s got three violations of probation now, we’ve got new charges on him, city police have got charges on him, this guy is just a nut,” Sheriff Judd said.
Deputies said Barwan has threatened victims in the past. He enlisted in the National Guard in Kentucky in 2007, but was discharged.
“This guy wants uniforms so much, we gave him one, an orange one,” Sheriff Judd said.
“Now I feel like I got my justice, now I’m happy,” Brees said.
