Fernando Garcia was after gas, not sex, when he pulled his Ford pickup into to the Exxon station at Laureland Road and Interstate 35 on Wednedsay afternoon. Nor was he aiming to get laid when he was approached by a youngish, blond woman asking for a ride. The 61-year-old told police he was simply doing a good deed.
Matter of fact, the first time sex even crossed Garcia's mind was when his passenger identified herself as Officer Denley of the Dallas Police Department. "This is a prostitution sting," she said.
It's not clear when Garcia realized Denley wasn't really a cop. It may have been when she ordered him to get into the passenger seat and took the wheel, or perhaps it was when they stopped at the extended-stay motel and picked up a man in a "wife-beater."
In any case, Garcia was well aware of his situation by the time he was taken on a whirlwind tour of the ATMs of southern Dallas, sandwiched between man and woman on the pickup's bench seat. The first stop was a Chevron station on I-35, where the woman demanded his debit card and PIN number. Next was a Wells Fargo on Marvin D. Love Freeway, where she forced Garcia to withdraw $300.
The couple collected $1,900 from Garcia's accounts before driving back to the original Exxon, where they left Garcia with his truck. From there, he called police -- the real ones this time -- and related his story, being careful to point out that he absolutely was not trying to pay for sex, although that would have been cheaper.
