A Georgia man has been arrested for allegedly pretending to be a teenager and enrolling in a Baldwin County high school.
The Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office arrested Abay Holmes, 21, who they say is a known con artist and used several pieces of false information to enroll in Baldwin High School as a 14-year-old student. Holmes remains in the Baldwin County Jail on charges including giving a false name, address and birthdate to a law enforcement officer, and giving false statements or writings to conceal facts or fraudulent documents, according to the Union-Recorder.
Holmes posed under the name Awan Thomas to enroll at BHS, according to an incident report filed by Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Brandon Towe.
The sheriff’s department was made aware of Holmes’ scam when authorities were called about 10 a.m. Aug. 25, to respond to the “unruly juvenile” in the area of Lockwood Street in Milledgeville. Towe said when he got to the neighborhood where the call had originated, he spotted a woman and Holmes, who was believed to be a child at the time.
“(Holmes) stated that [the woman] was trying to take away his school laptop because he (had) disrespected her,” Towe said in his report.
“After several hours of investigation, I determined that Awan did not have a legal guardian in the State of Georgia,” Towe said. While the deputy was en route, the dispatcher informed him the person who had called the 911 center was following the juvenile.
When seeking to verify Holmes’ story about his residence and how he enrolled in the school, the school officials and deputies realized that names and addresses did not add up. It wasn’t until fingerprints were taken on Thomas that authorities learned his real name. He was taken by a DFACS caseworker to the Jones County Sheriff’s Office in Gray, where fingerprints were obtained that proved he wasn’t who he had claimed to be.
Holmes was returned to Baldwin County authorities and subsequently jailed after the discovery.
The 21-year-old was reportedly a star football player at a metro Atlanta high school. After graduation, he was recruited to play football at Georgia Military College in Milledgeville.
Authorities have not determined the motive behind Holmes wanting to become a high school student again. The laptop Holmes had been using for virtual school is now back with school officials.
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