Strip search prank call scam

The strip search phone call scam is a series of incidents that extended over a period of about ten years before an arrest was made in 2004. The incidents involved a man prank calling a restaurant or grocery store, claiming to be a police officer and then convincing managers to conduct strip searches of female employees, and to perform other bizarre acts on behalf of "the police". The calls were most often placed to fast-food restaurants in small towns, located in rural areas of the United States.

Over 70 such occurrences were reported in 30 U.S. states, until an incident in 2004 in Mount Washington, Kentucky (population 9,117), finally led to the arrest of David Richard Stewart, a 37‑year-old employee of Corrections Corporation of America, a firm contracted by several states to provide corrections officers at private detention facilities.

On October 31, 2006, Stewart was acquitted of all charges in the Mount Washington case. He was suspected of, but never charged with, having made other, similar scam calls.

There were numerous prior incidents in many states which followed the pattern of the fraudulent call to a McDonald's restaurant in Mount Washington, Kentucky. Most of the calls were made to fast-food restaurants, but a few were made to grocery stores.

A caller who identified himself as a police officer or other authority figure would contact a manager or supervisor and would solicit their help in detaining a female employee or customer who was suspected of a crime. He would provide a description of the suspect, which the manager would recognize, and he would then ask the manager to search the suspected woman.

Some notable incidents were:

On April 9, 2004, a call was made to a McDonald's restaurant in Mount Washington, Kentucky. According to assistant manager Donna Summers, the caller identified himself as a policeman, "officer Scott." The caller gave Summers a vague description of a slightly-built young white woman with dark hair, who was suspected of theft.

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