Big Blue impersonator allegedly scams community members
A man operating under the pseudonym Chris King has been posing as Big Blue and soliciting community members for monetary donations. The incidents are currently being investigated by the Cache Valley Sheriff’s Office.
King went door-to-door in the Nibley area, often introducing himself a retired Big Blue mascot. He was charging $25.00 for repainting house numbers on the curbs, but gave conflicting accounts of what he was raising the funds for. He told some that it was for the football team, others that it was for a school reading program and some that it was for the Big Blue Scholarship Fund.
Cheryl Hugie of Nibley was one of many scammed by King — he stopped by her house on Wednesday. She described him as a young man in his twenties, wearing one of the famed Big Blue football jerseys and a lanyard with what looked like a student ID.
“He said he was Big Blue five years ago, and that he hadn’t finished his degree — he’d gone to California, but now he’d come to back to get a degree in sociology from the university,” Hugie recalled. King claimed he was on the injured list and currently working as an alternate for Big Blue.
What King didn’t know was that Hugie is KC Santistevan’s mother — Santistevan was Big Blue for two years until he was “beheaded” last spring when he graduated. When Hugie shared her suspicions with Santistevan on Sunday, he said he’d never heard of King.
“I contacted Jordan Rampersad. He was a former Big Blue, and he knew a little bit more about the previous Big Blues before my time,” Santistevan said. “So I asked if his name was familiar at all. And he said no, it wasn’t, and he definitely wasn’t a current big blue at the time.”
Unlike King, Rampersad actually was Utah State University’s mascot five years ago. Santistevan said Big Blues generally know the identity of their fellows. Big Blue is also sworn to secrecy, so Santistevan and Hugie both found it odd that King was so open about his alias.
Hugie said her neighbor, Heidi Hickman, was also highly suspicious of King.
“She asked what his name was, and he wouldn’t tell her,” Hugie said. “She really started questioning him. She looked at his tag, but didn’t see a name.”
Excited to have met another graduated Big Blue, Hugie invited him inside her house to see Santistevan’s jersey and photos. King told her, “Oh yeah, I know KC.” Santistevan’s name was, of course, on the jersey displayed.
After about 20 minutes of chatting, King asked Hugie to make the check out to Rachel Limb, his partner working with him in the neighborhood. Hugie had seen a woman parked in a car up the street with a young boy.
“We invited him into our home and everything — I felt so stupid,” Hugie said. “He had me, of all people, completely fooled.”
Hugie said that as King spent more time in her household, the woman in the car began to get visibly irritated, and the boy was crying — “probably because she was afraid of him getting caught.”
Hugie called Associate Vice President of Student Services Eric Olsen on Monday to report the incident. Olsen confirmed that there were no students in the university database named Chris King or Rachel Limb. Hugie said Olsen seemed bothered by the story.
Santistevan also said King has been advertising gymnastics lessons to community members. King claimed to have worked at Air-bound Gym, but after searching the company employee list, the management there said they had never employed someone named Chris King.
“Because he’s posing as Big Blue to get business, that’s fraudulent,” Hugie said. “And you don’t want people thinking Big Blue’s doing these things — that’s kind of bad for the university.”
Olsen said Hugie was thinking about contacting USU police. He explained that the Cache County Sheriff’s Office would have jurisdiction over the matter, since it happened in Nibley.
Spirit squad coach Nicole Troumbley said she was upset when she heard someone was impersonating Big Blue in the community.
“It is very frustrating to know that people take advantage of the fact that we go to such great lengths to keep his true identity a secret,” Troumbley said. “We work so hard to present a good image and presentation of Big Blue, so to see these types of things is very upsetting.”
Hugie reported the incident to the Sheriff’s Office on Monday. According to the county police blotter, the report is pending and an investigation is ongoing. Additionally, there were three other reports in the Logan City police blotter of fraud, although a correlation to the incidents with King has not yet been confirmed.