“Crying Girl” Grifter at Large in Davis
There is a menace loose on the bucolic streets of Davis… a grifter, a hustler, a scam artist, a swindler in the guise of a pretty young woman with tearing eyes ready to gush at a moment’s notice. Believe it or not, she often wears a red hood while stalking her prey.
The "Crying Girl" as identified by several DavisWiki.org users. Notice the concrete block in her hand that is about to be thrown at the photographer and beware this grifter.
I first heard of “Crying Girl” a few month ago during a conversation with my friend/barber who lives and works downtown. I had recently noticed an uptick in discussions about the local homeless problem and asked my barber if he had noticed any significant changes over the past year. He replied that the population seemed to have grown a little bit, but he was more concerned about the aggressive nature of some of the newer members of this population. Quickly, though, he was ready to share another type of menace: a young grifter he named “Crying Amtrak Girl”.
Recently, my barber and his girlfriend were walking down 3rd Street near D Street late in the evening. The couple was approached by an attractive, clean and well-dressed young woman who quickly launched into a story about being kicked out of her apartment by an abusive boyfriend. The Crying Girl clutched an Amtrak train schedule in her hand and said that she needed $38 so that she could buy a ticket to get home to her parents. Tears streamed down her face and sobs shook her throughout the story.
My buddy the barber has a low tolerance for bullshit and quickly saw through her ploy… sometimes you just know people are lying, right? Turns out his intuition was correct. Several weeks later, Crying Girl made the mistake of approaching my barber again with the same story. He called her bluff and so she turned on the waterworks and let loose a stream of invectives while backing down the street.
I forgot about Crying Girl until I overheard some folks at a local coffee shop talking about her . We compared notes and all the details were the same: young (16-22yo), white, female, Amtrak schedule, crying on command… check, check and check.
Yesterday I walked into a water cooler conversation with some clients and lo and behold, it seems Crying Girl is targeting parents with children at local grocery stores during the day. To date, I have randomly spoken with 7 Davisites that have been victimized by this young grifter. About 20 people have logged their encounters on DavisWiki.org. Crying Girl has two accomplices (a young man in a dark Chevrolet truck and a young woman in a red Toyota) that have been spotted waiting nearby in a parked vehicle to facilitate a quick get away if she is noticed. According to one person who captured the above photograph, Crying Girl threw a large piece of concrete at him when she realized her picture was being taken.
If you are approached by the Crying Girl, Davis Police advise you to politely turn her down. After you’ve gained some distance and turned the corner, call the non-emergency line at 747-5400 to report her location. Do not engage this young woman as she may turn violent on you.
If you’ve been conned, or even approached, by this scam artist, please take a few minutes to file a police report using this form (pdf). This criminal has been at her game for far too long, so please take the time to report any contact you have with her… the last thing we want is for the word to circulate that Davis is full of easy marks, thus numbing us to the very real challenges that face us as we strive to be a compassionate and caring community in these tough economic times.
The Daviswiki sure is awesome isn’t it?
Thanks for this info. I continue to be surprised at the level folks will go to to take advantage of others. (And I would have fallen for this, too)
I’ve seen this girl three times now in Vacaville. Once at Target a couple of months ago, once at L&L’s last week and again at the ATM by Taco Bell on Monte Vista a couple of days ago. Same story every time. This last time, we found out she was working with two guys! One of the guys I was with yelled out that she was a scammer and one of her accomplices immediately tried to get him to stop yelling by distracting him to ask what time it was. Since that didn’t stop him from shouting she was a faker, the accomplice gestured to another bigger guy who started walking over. To make things worse, the girl took a picture of my license plate with her phone! I made a police report just to be safe.
I was approached by her on G street a month ago- she got about two sentences into her pitch and I told her she needed acting lessons and kept walking- she was annoyed but didn’t yell or scream. I have to say that a gig like this could be pretty profitable in Davis. We aren’t used to this kind of a thing around here. Any reason the cops can’t just run her out of town?
Ed. Note: The following comment has been edited for obscene language.
yah ive been stopped by the cops three times and walked away. i bought my truck for $4500 a 2 bedroom house! THANX EVERYBODY for being so generous with the GREAT amount of money you have given me thanks again because im going to hawaii in 2 weeks also for an acting job. i saved up $12,538 not including my truck or trip! thanx guys love ya and lol thanx for making me FAMOUS!!! HA HA
look for me on the movies soon because you guys doing this showed my entertainment agency just how really great i am and i have 3 jobs lined up including one in HAWAII! this was all part of my project for my agency to see how great i can act and u citizens definetly paid for my beautiful portfolio!
p.s camera man we kno where u rest yur head good luck
EVERYONE ELSE ON HERE AND WHO STARTED THIS FUNNY S#^% THANX FOR THE ATTENTION(love it) && GET A F&#*(# LIFE LONER/LOSER NERD HAVE FUN [with] MY BEAUTIFUL PICTURE ABOVE!!
LOVE ALWAYS && FOREVER
YOUR RICH B(#*$ “CRYING GIRL”
@ “crying girl”- you might not want to flaunt that you bought all of those things with money you got lying to people. that is FRAUD, which means you can be sued. so good luck with the career, we’re all rooting for you. cause when you make it big, we’re all gonna get PAID.
If you see her, call the police and ask them to come quickly. (530)747-5400 is the non-emergency number.
Hopefully, this young woman will soon learn that she is not welcome in our town and that her presence will not be tolerated. Call the police and file a report for aggressive panhandling if you’ve ever been contacted by her and felt in the least bit threatened.
The Davis Enterprise published a story on her this past Sunday and CBS 13 is planning a story for tonight, so hopefully the more light we shine on this dark character, the less comfortable she will be in our community.
omg i just heard of her and she already makes me mad!!!!!! if she gets caught she should have to pay everyone back. this is what it comes down to when people lose jobs, coning people….
she came up to my wife and I last week in Vacaville at the Best Buy off of Monte Vista. Saw her hitting up other folks before giving us the sob story.
*Cr0wned*. –Insert name here– has startled the witch! L4D reference ftw.
This girl we believe is a under age juvenle with a possible drug problem. Please get the police involved. If this is the same runaway teenager from Woodland then let the police handle her. We were approached by her at the north davis safeway a few months ago with the story she needed $38 for a hotel room in Vacaville beause her boyfriend had kicked her out and her family had moved to San Diego. A few days later we heard of a family in Woodland was looking for thier runaway Daughter. Please let the police get involved.
HER NAME IS JILL JOHNSON she’s from vacaville CA!
HER NAME IS JILL JOHNSON she’s from vacaville CA! Ps jill…… We know where u and caleb rest YOUR head
and one more thing!!! she uses the money for her boyfriend to recop on crack and coke, this isnt a joke. she does have a problem. many people have been tricked by her…. cant believe shes proud.
@ her ex friend: can you give us more info? Age? More description? Another pic maybe or facebook profile?
Since she made a physical threat against someone above, and is associated with drug addicts, AND someone has uncovered her name and whereabouts, can’t we just turn this over to Davis PD and take her into custody for the harassment, and then nail her with the others? Personally, that sounds like a pretty serious threat upon the camera guy’s life to me.
I know who she is.
i know her brother,mother,and step dad. the other girl i know too.
She lives in vacaville, and Davis.
In Davis her brother has a two bedroom apartment.
his name is Scott.
name: jillien Johnson
age 20
white, blue eyes, 5’7, weighs between 115-125.
go to her myspace
http://www.myspace.com/jmodelj
I encountered this girl at Walmart in Dixon. She gave me a story about her boyfriend kicking her out and needing money for a motel room. I offered to call someone for her or call the police. I thought she was on drugs.
Someone posted this on DavisWiki: http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=63787300&albumId=1689152&page=1
Its a photo album from her brother’s myspace page. You can clearly see the Crying Girl in a few of these pics. In fact the last time I actually saw her, she was wearing those sunglasses (or identical ones).
This pretty much confirms her identity, she most certainly is Jill Johnson.
She’s 20 yrs old lives in the country at her boyfriends moms house….. His mom works for kuic…. Just lock her up! And caleb holcomb (her boyfriend) their both low lifes. And yeah that pic up top IS her and she IS chubby. GOOD LUCK JILL. ;) any questions email me @ cali_sunshine@ymail.com :)
I have her # too
She stole 20 bucks from my own Mom. Not cool. She needs to be prosecuted. There are way too many witnesses for this one…
Wow. Her brother’s myspace photos are awesome! Totally ID’s her. The additional name and age info was excellent too. Thanks Nia. Can anybody download photos from her myspace profile? Its currently set to private. Anybody who can totally rules!
And if her brother is wanted, and since he’s apparently seen with her, can’t she be arrested as an accomplice to evading police?DPD needs to arrest them.
if i saw this broad, id shoot her with a paint ball gun. oh wait thats illegal!
I just want to set the record straight for “devestator”. Scott is in jail and has nothing to do with this. If you want to go after her then do it but dont throw his name as apparently with her cuz its just not possible. As for “ex-friend” and “Nia” you two dont know anything cuz Scott has not lived in davis for over a year and he NEVER had a two bedroom apartment! If you want to stop her go the police not a website where you are basically just having fun. Did you stop to think before you typed where his mom works? Thats just not right she is a nice lady and dosen’t deserve her name dragged thru the mud for something her son and his girlfriend are doing. You should be ashamed of yourselves and karma sucks. Oh ya “gahh” grow up!
u people got too much time on your hands …who are you to jugde this girl , what she has been threw or going threw …cast the stone…perfect ones
Dan
I definitely will throw the stone, as I don’t care what this girl is going “threw” or perhaps you meant through? She has demonstrated that she is nothing more than a delinquent who delights in conning people rather than working. The thing that disgusts me about this behavior is the effect it has on others.
One day there may truly be someone in a situation like this yet dozens of people would pass her by. Why? An asshole like Jillian Johnson hustled and harassed them previously in life and now we can’t trust one another.
I can only hope and wait for the day when Karma bites this failure of a human being in the ass.
life bites us all in the ass ..and there is no logic to whom it bites
people who do things to harm others tend to eventually cross a line that gets them some hell. I just hope it happens to her sooner than later
This chubby little girl approached me in the Safeway parking lot a few months ago. I was convinced by her act, especially the water works, but not enough to give her the $38 bucks she asked for. (One of the benefits of being an a*****e is that you don’t get scammed as much.) When I turned her down she wailed, “Why won’t anybody help me?!” Now I don’t feel so bad.
Agree with the post before me–this girl is a fatty. Why does the article refer to her as “pretty” when she clearly isn’t? She’ll get hers in the end. If you do stuff like this, eventually you’ll piss off the wrong person and that person will resort to physical violence. But whatever, you figure she’ll lead a painful life devoid of happiness, which is enough punishment. Take a look at the pic of her and her friends on Davis Wiki–clearly gutter trash. Their lives aren’t going anywhere.
If you’re a friend of you-know-who, tell her that the Davis Police have officially issued a warrant for her arrest for 9 felony fraud counts and 7 misdemeanor public nuisance counts, and a single count of assault with a deadly weapon (a piece of concrete). Better stay down in Vacaville for a few years.
This is hilarious. Internet vigilantism at its finest.
If she hurls concrete at you, that’s ASSAULT. Punch her &^%$! lights out. (Even though this is California, you still have the right to self defense.)
Assault is a crime which a citizens arrest is appropriate too.
@devastator:
she can’t be a witch. she throws concrete. therefore, she is a tank.
I’m sorry, but her comment above was so horribly misspelled and idiotic I couldn’t help but wince at the thought of her thinking she was actually a pretty and clever girl.
If I ever had the chance to be approached by this horrible child, I would have trolled her so hard she would have been crying from pure rage.
Oh. My. God. I’m 2800 miles from Davis and they’re doing the same thing – even using Amtrak! – in Boston.
Last month a guy, maybe 18-19, come up to me outside Boston’s South Station with this same story only with gender reversal: his girlfriend had split, tapped out the ATM, totally broke, and could I spot him $38 bucks? (The exact same amount! I only remember it because I thought, “Weird: if I gave him two twenties would I get $2 in change?”) for an Amtrak ticket so he could get home to his parents. I didn’t have $20 on me, much less $40 – I mean, who uses cash anymore? – and I’m cheap besides, but something about the whole set-up shut down any charitable impulses I might have felt. He was young, looked strong and clean-cut – not like he’d been living on the streets, but at the same time there was something cokey/cracky about him that set off my bullsh*t alarms. I brushed him off and he wasn’t too po’d but when he tried it on the next pedestrian and got shut down again he went verbally ballistic on her.
I’m just blown away to hear about the same scam – even involving Amtrak – happening on the other side of the country. Is there a successful scammer website where they trade trips? Is it spread by hobos, like in the Depression? Dunno, but great to read people organized in this way to ID her. Good work. Maybe something like police/judicial intervention will happen that changes her behavior, even as I’m not all that optimistic anything will change from the way you all describe her.
The only thing that surprises me here is your surprise, Bostom, seeing as how similar scams have been talking place probably since the wheel was invented. Especially common to most bigger cities though Boston has been mentioned a lot in comments such as at Reddit where this story made the front page. If it’s not a train or bus ticket, it’s gas money for the car they don’t have or food for the non-existent baby.
I feel bad for this girl, all her personal information is on the Internet and she’ll likely be harassed IRL. This should’ve been dealt with privately not put out on the Internet for a witch burning crusade.
Plus how good can it feel when you have to con people like this? Anyone with any sense of shame or dignity would feel awful. Sure you get money but is it worth the suspicious looks and constant rejection?
All for some petty cash her life is ruined.
bob you’re a tool. here’s a person that would readily hurl something at someone (that’s assault, and battery if the object did hit) and you’re saying the person’s life is ruined because they’re just out to innocently con some ppl a few dollars? please. if she didn’t want her stuff to be aired out, maybe she shouldn’t have conned folks.
HEY-O Gawker! Thanks for visiting (http://gawker.com/5570130/meet-crying-girl-californias-celebrity-grifter)… but more importantly, thanks for giving birth to your bastard, disinherited step-child, Wonkette.com
I’ve been scammed and when I have given. It always has come from a place of compassion toward that “down trodden” individual. I have wondered if they would use in the way the giver had hoped they intended it or would they continue on the selfish and self destructive path. I don’t know if the “crying girl” poster is really the same girl. I don’t see how she could be so hateful and arrogant and ugly about compassion and generosity. People gave not out of her acting skill but out of pity. She portrayed herself as a lower social economic life that people with a higher life took pity on her and gave her money. Either way, she had no value for herself or for others that she would take so falsely and freely. One day that pity, generosity and compassion and money that flowed to her so freely may not be there for her when she may truly need it some other time in her life. Karma. As for all the things she posted about buying with her “acting/scam” impressive trips to Hawaii, photo shoots/portfolio, a truck, and a nice savings and a house. Well, perhaps the IRS should investigate her unclaimed income and perform a tax audit. Especially since they know who she is. No amount of acting could get her out of a snag with the IRS just ask any real celebrity who has been snagged and tangled with them in the past. They show not pity, generosity, or compassion when you break the law and the only flow of money is outward toward them. Just something to think about and balance and right the universe once again.
i dont understand how she let her self go like this . makes me wanna cry jill was never a drug attic but always a nice person. things change…
She is now pulling same scam in Dallas, but with a crying boy in the back seat. Is this her son? I think she should get arrested for child abuse.
http://www.parkcitiespeople.com/2011/04/27/sketchy-scenes-in-and-around-the-park-cities/comment-page-1/#comment-164299
@Bob, yeah Bob you are a tool. You know what tools are for? To be used and discarded until you need them again. What’s with this I believe religious BS about not judging her? That’s what it is BS. Yeah we should judge her by the evidence of her actions. Stupid is as stupid does and you, Bob are stupid. I say lock her ass up and throw away the key and if she gets sucker punched while being arrested…oh well.