In September of 2010, my husband picked up a man and gave him a ride to what he said was a doctor appointment. The man said his name was Ming, and that he was a first-year student at the University of Cincinnati medical school. Ming found out that my husband is a pastor of a local church and said he had been looking for Christian fellowship. We started picking up Ming at the place he was staying in West Chester to bring him to church events and Sunday services.
Ming was a kind, helpful, unassuming person who shared the "little" that he had with others. As we were getting to know Ming, he would help with church set-up, clean-up, and he was polite and friendly with everyone and never asked for anything in return aside from the occasional car ride. For about a month, we pieced together Ming's "story," which was very consistent from person to person.
Here is Ming's story according to Ming:
Ming was a 24 year-old who came to America with a missionary couple from Taiwan. He spent his senior year of high school at Princeton, lived in Sharonville, and upon graduation went ot Oberlin College for pre-med. He was part of a fraternity there, which is where he was nick-named Justin. Ming's mother had breast cancer, and throughout college Ming tried to find a way to bring her to the United States for treatment. Ming's father had treated him and his mother badly and was an alcoholic. Growing up, Ming and his mother had to collect bottles to make money to pay for his father's alcohol addiction. Ming was very close to his mother and was an only child.
Eventually Ming was able to bring his mother to the United States for treatment, but the cancer had progressed too quickly and she did not survive. This was spring of 2010, around the time when Ming graduated from Oberlin. Soon thereafter, Ming's father fell off a building one evening when drunk (back in Taiwan) and was killed. Ming used everything he had, sold his car, and used all of his savings to pay for medical and burial expenses. When Ming was in Taiwan burying his parents, his adoptive missionary couple decided to retire to Argentina, but left him with a month paid for at a motel in Sharonville. According to Ming, he was too depressed to do anything for about a month when he returned to the United States, and ended up having to live in a homeless shelter. He ran into a couple people who let him work and save enough to be able to pay for rent and have money to take a bus to and from work. Ming put an add on Craig's List to rent a room and a man who lived near Tylersville road answered that ad. Ming moved in with this man, and got a summer job at Data Recognition Corporation grading standardized tests.
Over the summer, some things had happened with Ming's roommate that made him extremely uncomfortable. But Ming had a full-ride to med school and was going to start September 30.
This is where my husband and I came into the picture in late August/early September:
Ming was sweet, generous and helpful, and had never asked for anything. He told us that he helped with Habitat for Humanity, and we know for a fact that he translated for an international Christian ministy near the UC campus (we spoke with the director). My husband and I decided to have Ming live with us to get him out of his "bad" roommate situation. We wanted to help him get ready for med school, and to see if we could help him by either staying with us, or finding a better situation for him on campus. Ming told us that he struggled with depression, but my husband know many resources for counseling so we were not overly concerned with that issue.
We welcomed Ming into our home, and with our money as well as donations from people who got to know Ming at church, got him clothes, glasses, contacts, shoes, food, books for school, and set up a system of donations for Ming to purchase food when he was down at UC during the week.
Soon thereafter, we began to see inconsistencies in Ming's stories and a change in his attitude. We made contacts at the University of Cincinnati and found that what Ming was telling us about his medical program did not line up with how the programs work at the University of Cincinnati. Also, we had a long discussion about household boundaries and budget (how we could all work together to save money over the winter - keeping the house temperature between 65 and 70 degrees, etc.), and Ming did not like that. He said he could "not study wrapped in a blanket." A couple days later, Ming emailed me a very inappropriate email stating that we had a "deep connection" (among other things) and he did not copy my husband on the email. That weekend my husband moved Ming out of our house and back to the house he had been staying at in West Chester.
Ming claimed a laundry-list of issues including: depression, cutting, germaphobia, abuse, struggling with his sexual identity, etc, and told sad stories of rejection from other churches. Ming preys on generous people, many of whom have very little themselves, specifically church-goers. He has been connected with churches in Sharonville, West Chester, Kenwood, and Cincinnati. Ming has also lived in Columbus, and more recently, Athens Ohio. He has very poor vision and has been trying to get free products from Wing Eyecare. Most recently, he requested colored eye contacts from them, stating he has been a victim of domestic abuse. Ming has stolen gift cards, a library card from a neighbor that we had helped to move, Sams club IDs, YMCA IDs, etc. We eventually looked through the items in Ming's possession while he was in jail and found many books on how to seduce women (as well as many pages - over 100 at least - of handwritten obscene and inapporpriate things). There were many cards written word-for-word with the same innappropriate words he had emailed to me. He also had books on how to get anyone to like and believe you. We found many items in his possession that had been stolen from others who were trying to help Ming.
Here is Ming's story according to the University of Cincinnati, Sharonville, and Butler County Police Departments:
Ming's real name is Kuang Ming Huang. He was born in 1965 and came to American in 1985, becoming a US citizen shortly thereafter. Since that time, he has been preying on the generosity of churches, and has been arrested for larsony, obstruction, failure to identify in both the Columbus and Cincinnati areas. He is a professional con-artist who prides himself on his ability to manipulate people - specifically Christians. He has used the names of Jack, Jason, Justin, Ming and Michael Huang, and we have found at least 4 other churches/ministries that he has been conning over the past few months. Ming even called my husband and asked him to tell the UC police to drop charges. He told my husband that this was the first time he had ever been arrested (which we already knew was not true).
If you see this man, he is extremely dangerous. Please do not provide him with transportation, housing, money, or help of any kind. There are plenty of community services where he can be provided for. Obviously, we want to help people that honestly have needs. But this kind of trickery tears people apart and takes resources away from honest people who would be truely grateful.
Lastly, my encouragement to all is to be kind and generous, but be sure to investigate stories such as Ming's. If someone is truly in need, they can be honest and allow you to verify their story. Let's give generously, yet wisely.
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