Cops: Woman, 31, Posed as High School Sophomore

And got away with it for a school year
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 15, 2014 5:07 PM CDT
Cops: Woman, 31, Posed as High School Sophomore
Charity Anne Johnson, with her high school alter ego.   (Police and Facebook photos)

A strange case of an alleged imposter out of Texas: A woman who is at least 31 and possibly older posed as a 15-year-old high school sophomore and got away with it for almost an entire school year, reports KLTV. Charity Johnson is behind bars and accused of duping an East Texas woman into taking her in as an abandoned teen, then enrolling in a Longview high school as Charity Stevens. “She acted like a kid," Tamara Lincoln tells ABC News. "She did her homework. She got good report cards." Jail records put Johnson's age at 31, but police think she's actually 34.

Johnson's motive is unclear, but she managed to enroll in the school in October 2013 and didn't get arrested until last week. The scheme began unraveling when she tried to join a group for needy kids and a background check turned up red flags. The group contacted Lincoln, who called police after a little snooping of her own. Lincoln herself is 30, making her younger than the supposed teen in her care. "I just don't know why she did it," she says. (More weird crimes stories.)

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